This year has been a rather good one for fans of power metal in general: we've had the mighty Epica return with a brilliant album, Nightwish are aiming to start work on their eighth album with the intention of releasing it in early 2015 (so we might be hearing a single from them in December), Kamelot are working on their eleventh studio album, Amaranthe are aiming to release their third album in late 2014, we've had strong returns to form from Gamma Ray, Iron Savior, Edguy, Sonata Arctica, Primal Fear and Freedom Call (to name a few)...and we've still potentially got Blind Guardian's tenth album as well! And, bear in mind, it's not even June yet! AND I've not brought up the new Judas Priest album that should be out in July (Priest aren't power metal, but Painkiller was a huge influence on the genre). If this isn't one of the best years for melodic metal this side of the 2000's, I will be VERY surprised!
So, with so much great power metal this year among the titans of the genre, you'd be forgiven for forgetting about the smaller names in the genre! But worry not, there's been some interesting stuff from the power metal underground: we've had Xandria returning with a fairly good album, HolyHell might be making a return later this year (if the news on their Facebook page about them having nearly finished tracking their second album is accurate), we've had the return of Delain and, now, we've got the return of Finnish symphonic power metal band Amberian Dawn.
...Well, OK, Amberian Dawn haven't exactly been gone anywhere: they've released an album every year since 2008 (aside from in 2011, and even that was a year and four months between the release of their 2010 album End Of Eden and their 2012 album Circus Black, which is still a surprisingly quick album cycle when you consider that most bands will only just have started pre-production for their next album in that same length of time!), so it's not like they'd be hard to forget about if you pay attention! Still, even for a band which has been around under their name since 2006 (they were around before 2006 under the name Atheme One, but I can't confirm how long they were around under that name), it's rather impressive that they're now on their fifth studio album (their 2013 album was technically a self-covers album: it was done to allow fans to hear their new vocalist tackling material from their first four albums): most bands who released their first album in 2006 haven't even got to their fourth yet. Still, being ridiculously productive doesn't mean a thing if all that you're producing is boring or even outright bad, so the question remains: is the single for their upcoming album Magic Forest (due to be released on the 7th of July in the UK) actually any good or have the band been so determined to be productive that they've forgotten about the importance of quality control? Well, let's find out!
If you want to watch the video to this song before reading the rest of my review, here you go! It's an unlisted video, so I can't directly put the video into the article like I would usually prefer to. Hugely disappointed with this, as it makes the label (Napalm Records, if you're curious) seem like they're trying to hide this song from being found and talked about! It's probably nothing like that in the slightest, but, the way I see it, if you're not making a music video able to be found with a direct search on youtube, there has to be a reason...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNs8Z6W7Y8Y
Anyway, putting my paranoia aside, lets look at the song!
Symphonic metal, as a general rule of thumb, tends to be known for being rather bombastic and suitably epic, although this is most likely because the most well known names in the genre (Nightwish, Epica, Therion and Delain) seem to enjoy being bombastic (which probably explains why so many bands seem to sound like Nightwish: they're the most influential band of the symphonic metal scene, despite not actually being the first symphonic metal band. That honour would belong to Therion.). Amberian Dawn, by contrast, don't reach for the epic card on this track, instead preferring to go for a more restrained style that feels a bit more like the ballad or quiet song in an opera as opposed to being the epic closing finale of the same hypothetical opera. On paper, this is quite a good thing, as it lets the arrangements speak for themselves without having to fight against everything else and, as such, opens a lot of possibilities to add subtleties and whatnot that you couldn't get quite as well if the symphonic elements have to aim to be as loud as they can, but I have to say that, in this case, the symphonic elements feel a bit lacking. Don't get me wrong, they are definitely present, but they feel somewhat underwritten, as if they were a mere afterthought in the songwriting process, and you'd be forgiven for barely noticing them. Hugely disappointed by this, as it also makes the rest of the track (the metal elements of the song) look underwritten as well due to it not receiving the support it needs for the whole track to become more than the sum of its parts. Aspiring songwriters, this is why you shouldn't add symphonic elements to a track without taking the time to be sure that it actually supports the song and makes it better, as failing to make the symphonic elements blend with the music and both supports and is supported by the rest of the song will usually result in a song that feels like it hasn't capitalised on the potential it had at best and ruin a perfectly good song at worst. That said, I think that the band DOES still perform the track well and there's enough hooks in the song to make it worth hearing a few times, but none of them stick with you for an especially long time and the whole song feels like there was a lot of wasted potential to it: I can imagine this song would have been a lot better musically had the symphonic elements been better integrated into the song.
So, the music feels like it has a lot of wasted potential, but how does vocalist Capri (birth name Paivi Virkkunen) handle the song? Honestly, pretty well! She can sing in a more classically trained style (not specifically in an operatic way, but in a way that indicates she has a lot of technique behind her singing) and a more pop-influenced singing style (which makes sense: she has released two pop-rock albums (Salaa sinun in 1997 and Kuun morsian in 2001) under her own name!) that makes for quite an interesting listening experience. She manages to sound young and innocent in the verses, but she can also sing the chorus in a way that makes you realise she's not actually a young singer (according to my research, she's 42 years old at the minute and, honestly, that wasn't as far from my actual guess of her age before I did my research on her as you'd expect: I'd assumed around mid-30's, give or take a few years, when she sung in her more mature voice!). I've no idea how she sounds compared to her predecessor, as I've not taken the time to hear her voice for the sake of comparison, but I will say that her voice is definitely very enjoyable. I would understand people saying that Amberian Dawn has basically taken a leaf from Nightwish's book, but I wouldn't say Capri's voice shares a lot in common with Anette's voice beyond Capri's voice having a slightly poppy edge to it that is very easy to notice in Anette's voice. The best comparison to describe her voice (as unfair as this will be, as Capri isn't as good a singer as her) is actually Floor Jansen. Granted, it's still not a flawless comparison (Capri's not as powerful a singer as Floor, for a start), but it's about the closest comparison I can think of at the minute, as I've not really kept up to date with symphonic metal for a while now!
The production...I don't know about this production, to be honest. It's definitely not especially loudly mastered, but this is one of the rare times when my complaint is that the mix seems to be somewhat confused with what it wants to do. The bass isn't too difficult to hear (admittedly, you'll still need to really listen for it, but, once you pick it up, you'll not have too much difficulty with hearing it: would have preferred it a bit louder, but that's personal preference, as I like bass heavy mixes myself!), but the symphonic elements seem to flip between being too quiet and being too overpowering, depending on the point in the song. When it's not Capri's time to sing or the guitars don't need to do a lot, the symphonic elements can be a bit too loud in the mix, but, when either of the two circumstances I've mentioned occur, the symphonic elements tend to be slightly lost underneath the rest of the instruments. It's nice that you don't need to practically have a ability to sense what isn't there to follow the bass and I don't have a huge issue with the mastering on this song, but the symphonic elements feel like they haven't been given the opportunity they need to shine.
So, final thoughts? Aside from some slightly questionable mixing when it comes to the symphonic elements, the song is fine, if slightly frustrating due to how good it COULD have been had the symphonic elements been better integrated into the song and slightly dull due to how the hooks don't stick with you for anywhere near long enough. I wouldn't exactly call this a shining beacon of symphonic metal brilliance, as there's definitely flaws to improve upon, but I can see symphonic metal fans with an acceptance for the less bombastic side of the genre at least enjoying this. If, however, you like your symphonic metal with a lot of bombast (like myself), this song will leave you wanting more, and not necessarily in the kind of way that will have you wanting to pick up Magic Forest when it comes out.
Final Rating: 6 Out Of 10
A fairly enjoyable track that could have done with some stronger hooks, better integration of the symphonic elements of the band's sound into the track and some slightly better mixing. If you're a symphonic metal fan, you should enjoy this, but you'll probably not be won over by it enough to find the band becoming your new favourite symphonic metal band. If you're not into symphonic metal, this song won't change anything, so feel free to give this one a miss.
(Also, interesting bit of trivia for the curious: two of the seven ex-members of Amberian Dawn are likely to be familiar with people who are deeply interested in the metal scene, as they are currently performing in well respected metal bands. Guitarist Kasperi Heikkinen did live guitars with Gamma Ray in 2006 and is currently playing for U.D.O. while bassist Jukka Koskinen is currently part of Wintersun and Cain's Offering!)
Thursday, 29 May 2014
Wednesday, 28 May 2014
The Singles Collection: Skid Row "We Are The Damned" Review
As you might remember back when I did my review of Skid Row's review of United World Rebellion - Chapter One (which you can read here, if you haven't read it), I mentioned that Skid Row were working on making a trilogy of EPs in this series and that, at the time, I had no real information about when the second part would be out.
Well, the second part (with the rather long winded title 'Rise Of The Damnation Army' - United World Rebellion: Chapter Two) is FINALLY confirmed to be out in August with another five songs (and two covers which look like they might actually be rather interesting: "Sheer Heart Attack" by Queen and "Rats In The Cellar" by Aerosmith) and, to get the band's fans excited again, the band have released the first song from the album, "We Are The Damned" (which should DEFINITELY not be confused with "March Of The Damned" by Judas Priest)!
So, what's it like? Well, let's give a look at it!
First of all, go give the track a listen. Click this link and scroll down to the audio section to hear the track (the band haven't put the track on youtube at the time of writing, so I can't link you to that. Sorry!): http://www.udr-music.com/index.php/skidrow-band
The first thing you'll notice is that Solinger's voice still sounds like it did on the previous EP. He certainly doesn't sound like the same guy who sung "Ghost" on 2003's Thickskin: he sounds like he's grown into the vocal role that you'd expect from a guy who has been singing stuff like "18 & Life" and "Slave To The Grind" for 15 years now! If you're still on the "No Bach, no Skid Row" side of the debate (in which case...dude, it's now been 15 years since Solinger joined the band, so he's been in the band longer than Bach has. With all due respect, and in words that you should have no problem understanding, grow the fuck up! It really says a lot that a guy who recently turned 21 is being more accepting about this kind of thing than you are...), you might be in for a pleasant surprise, as his punk influenced take on Bach's style is pretty good, although he sadly doesn't try to go for the impressive screams like he did on last year's "Kings Of Demolition". Maybe there'll be more of that kind of thing on the EP...
The second thing you'll notice is the music has dialled up the heaviness a bit! The starting riff didn't make me think of Skid Row so much as it did vaguely of Crashdiet (which, admittedly, makes sense: Skid Row had a huge influence on sleaze metal). It's not QUITE to the levels on Slave To The Grind, but it's definitely a small step in that direction, while still keeping the band's more punk influenced sound that they developed on the last EP. It's here that my praise might have to stop, though...
The third thing I need to mention, sadly, is a negative: the production is too loudly mastered and the bass is nearly impossible to hear. I'm not exaggerating, it took me several listens to realise that there was ANY bass on the track because I was too afraid to turn the volume up more than halfway on my speakers out of concern for being deafened by the guitars! THAT'S NOT GOOD PRODUCTION, GUYS! You'd have done yourselves more favours by putting the guitars lower in the mix, making the bass louder and not mastering it so loudly that I'd be afraid of blowing my ears off if I played this as loudly as my speakers could cope with!
As for the song itself...distressingly, the hook for the chorus doesn't last in your head especially long! To be fair to it, it DOES start to sink in after a bit, but it requires several listens to really sink in, which is not really a good sign when you consider that this song is meant to promote the EP and encourage people to buy it, as most people will probably pass over it after the first listen. The guitar work is solid (and the opening riff is brilliant!), the drumming is solid, the bass might as well not exist for all I can hear of it...if it weren't for the fact the song takes so long to sink in, it'd be a track I'd be saying was fairly solid. As it stands, it's a track that takes a few listens to really sink in, but is enjoyable enough.
So, final thoughts? Aside from the mixing and mastering issues, it's a solid enough track, just lacking in being instantly memorable. I don't see this topping what the band did on the previous EP in the slightest, but it's still OK.
Final Rating: 6 Out Of 10
Skid Row fans who have accepting Solinger as the band's vocalist should enjoy this after a few listens. Everyone else would be advised to only approach this if they want to avoid having a frame of reference for what Skid Row are like at their best and to judge the track on its own merits...and, even then, I doubt you'll come away too impressed with this, to be totally honest.
Well, the second part (with the rather long winded title 'Rise Of The Damnation Army' - United World Rebellion: Chapter Two) is FINALLY confirmed to be out in August with another five songs (and two covers which look like they might actually be rather interesting: "Sheer Heart Attack" by Queen and "Rats In The Cellar" by Aerosmith) and, to get the band's fans excited again, the band have released the first song from the album, "We Are The Damned" (which should DEFINITELY not be confused with "March Of The Damned" by Judas Priest)!
So, what's it like? Well, let's give a look at it!
First of all, go give the track a listen. Click this link and scroll down to the audio section to hear the track (the band haven't put the track on youtube at the time of writing, so I can't link you to that. Sorry!): http://www.udr-music.com/index.php/skidrow-band
The first thing you'll notice is that Solinger's voice still sounds like it did on the previous EP. He certainly doesn't sound like the same guy who sung "Ghost" on 2003's Thickskin: he sounds like he's grown into the vocal role that you'd expect from a guy who has been singing stuff like "18 & Life" and "Slave To The Grind" for 15 years now! If you're still on the "No Bach, no Skid Row" side of the debate (in which case...dude, it's now been 15 years since Solinger joined the band, so he's been in the band longer than Bach has. With all due respect, and in words that you should have no problem understanding, grow the fuck up! It really says a lot that a guy who recently turned 21 is being more accepting about this kind of thing than you are...), you might be in for a pleasant surprise, as his punk influenced take on Bach's style is pretty good, although he sadly doesn't try to go for the impressive screams like he did on last year's "Kings Of Demolition". Maybe there'll be more of that kind of thing on the EP...
The second thing you'll notice is the music has dialled up the heaviness a bit! The starting riff didn't make me think of Skid Row so much as it did vaguely of Crashdiet (which, admittedly, makes sense: Skid Row had a huge influence on sleaze metal). It's not QUITE to the levels on Slave To The Grind, but it's definitely a small step in that direction, while still keeping the band's more punk influenced sound that they developed on the last EP. It's here that my praise might have to stop, though...
The third thing I need to mention, sadly, is a negative: the production is too loudly mastered and the bass is nearly impossible to hear. I'm not exaggerating, it took me several listens to realise that there was ANY bass on the track because I was too afraid to turn the volume up more than halfway on my speakers out of concern for being deafened by the guitars! THAT'S NOT GOOD PRODUCTION, GUYS! You'd have done yourselves more favours by putting the guitars lower in the mix, making the bass louder and not mastering it so loudly that I'd be afraid of blowing my ears off if I played this as loudly as my speakers could cope with!
As for the song itself...distressingly, the hook for the chorus doesn't last in your head especially long! To be fair to it, it DOES start to sink in after a bit, but it requires several listens to really sink in, which is not really a good sign when you consider that this song is meant to promote the EP and encourage people to buy it, as most people will probably pass over it after the first listen. The guitar work is solid (and the opening riff is brilliant!), the drumming is solid, the bass might as well not exist for all I can hear of it...if it weren't for the fact the song takes so long to sink in, it'd be a track I'd be saying was fairly solid. As it stands, it's a track that takes a few listens to really sink in, but is enjoyable enough.
So, final thoughts? Aside from the mixing and mastering issues, it's a solid enough track, just lacking in being instantly memorable. I don't see this topping what the band did on the previous EP in the slightest, but it's still OK.
Final Rating: 6 Out Of 10
Skid Row fans who have accepting Solinger as the band's vocalist should enjoy this after a few listens. Everyone else would be advised to only approach this if they want to avoid having a frame of reference for what Skid Row are like at their best and to judge the track on its own merits...and, even then, I doubt you'll come away too impressed with this, to be totally honest.
Sunday, 25 May 2014
The Beach Boys "That's Why God Made The Radio" Review
...I gotta be honest, this is one of the rare times when I feel that talking about the history of the band I want to review an album by would not only be pointless due to how well known they are, but would be an understatement upon just how influential and beloved they are. I mean, what can be said about The Beach Boys that most people don't already know?
So, rather go into the huge amount of detail that I'd like to go into, I'm going to give a VERY brief overview of the band's history so that I can cover the important stuff, rather than cover every little detail that I could cover. Now, I know most people would love me to give every detail that I could give about the band, but, partially because there's so much that I would need to cover (bear in mind, these guys have been around for about fifty three years now) and partially because you probably won't be interested in a lot of the details, I've opted for a skim read version of the band's history, otherwise I'll probably still be writing this in June...2015.
So, the band formed in 1961 (although they'd been vaguely making progress on stuff since 1958) with the line up of Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson (all of whom were brothers), Mike Love (who was a cousin of the Wilsons) and Al Jardine, released their debut album (Surfin' Safari) in October 1962, which peaked at number 32 on the US charts, and pretty much continued a successful run of albums up until 1967's Smiley Smile (their TWELFTH album, if you're curious). During this period of time, the band's songwriting was mostly lead by Brian Wilson, who also produced their albums from 1963's Surfer Girl.
Their albums during this period of time (and the line up that played on each album: I'm not going to bother counting all of the session musicians, so I'm only going to count people identified as actually being members of the band) were:
Surfin' Safari (October 1962) (band members were Mike Love, Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, David Marks and Al Jardine)
Surfin' U.S.A. (March 1963) (same line up as Surfin' Safari, but without Al Jardine)
Surfer Girl (September 1963) (same line up as Surfin' Safari)
Little Deuce Coupe (October 1963) (same line up as Surfin' Safari)
Shut Down Volume 2 (March 1964) (same line up as Surfin' Safari, but without David Marks)
All Summer Long (July 1964) (same as Shut Down Volume 2)
The Beach Boys' Christmas Album (November 1964) (same line up as Shut Down Volume 2)
The Beach Boys Today! (March 1965) (same line up as Shut Down Volume 2)
Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) (July 1965) (same line up as Shut Down Volume 2, but with Bruce Johnston now a member of the band)
Beach Boys' Party! (November 1965) (a covers album, but you can thank this album for the band's cover of "Barbara Ann"!) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)...and also featured a guest appearance from Dean Torrence, who was half of Jay & Dean)
Pet Sounds (May 1966) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!))
Smiley Smile (September 1967) (technically qualifies as part of the next era of the band, but I prefer to put it here due to the fact that a lot of the material was from Smile and Brian Wilson wrote or co-wrote most of the material on the album.) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!))
This is the period of the band which you're most likely to be familiar with, as most of their most famous songs came from this era of the band.
After this, Brian Wilson (for various reasons, including his declining mental health and the failure to make Smile materialise) started to give up control of the band to create a more collaborative effort with the band's material.
Their albums during this period of time were:
Wild Honey (December 1967) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!))
Friends (June 1968) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!))
20/20 (February 1969) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!))
Sunflower (August 1970) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!))
Surf's Up (August 1971) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!))
Carl And The Passions - "So Tough" (May 1972) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), but with the addition of Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar)
Holland (January 1973) (same line up as Carl And The Passions - "So Tough", but without Bruce Johnston)
This period of the band's history, while not especially well known among the mainstream, is pretty universally considered to be great by the band's fans, so, if you want to dig into the band at the deep end (for some bizarre reason...), you should pick stuff from this era of the band.
After this, Brian Wilson pretty much got himself back to being the band's main creative spirit again for a tiny period of time.
Their albums during this period of time were:
15 Big Ones (July 1976) (technically a covers album, with a few originals) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), but without Bruce Johnston)
Love You (April 1977) (same line up as 15 Big Ones)
These two albums are basically between when the band are considered great and when the band were considered to have gone downhill, so mention these with care around fans of the band, as you might cause a flame war in the wrong circumstances.
After this, Mike Love took over the band and, up until the release of Stars And Stripes Vol. 1 and the death of Carl Wilson, the band pretty much kept going.
Their albums during this period of time were:
M.I.U. Album (October 1978) (same line up as 15 Big Ones)
L.A. (Light Album) (March 1979) (same line up as 15 Big Ones, but with Bruce Johnston)
Keepin' The Summer Alive (March 1980) (same line up as L.A. (Light Album))
The Beach Boys (June 1985) (first album released after the death of Dennis Wilson: the rest of the band's line up is still the same as on Keepin' The Summer Alive)
Still Cruisin' (August 1989) (same line up as on The Beach Boys)
Summer In Paradise (August 1992) (same line up as on The Beach Boys, but without Brian Wilson)
Stars And Stripes Vol. 1 (August 1996) (a collaboration album with a collection of country artists) (same line up as The Beach Boys)
This era of the band...well, let's put it this way: there's a reason a lot of fans of The Beach Boys don't like Mike Love. All of the albums from this period of time are generally held to be pretty poor at best and outright terrible at worst. If you have not listened to The Beach Boys before now, you are HIGHLY recommended to avoid these albums and only come to them if you are the kind of person who wants to own every studio album released by the band.
After Carl Wilson's death, the band splintered. The band did still tour (mostly with Mike Love and Bruce Johnson as the most recognisable members of the band), but the next studio album by The Beach Boys would not come until the release of That's Why God Made The Radio in June 2012, in time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the band's first album. It also is the first album by The Beach Boys to have David Marks in the band since Little Deuce Coupe, although only on rhythm guitar: the actual members of the band who sung on the album were Bruce Johnston, Al Jardine, Mike Love and Brian Wilson.
...And now you see why I had to go for a VERY bare bones history of the band. The sheer amount of stuff I would have had to cover would have taken a HUGE amount of time to write. I mean, everything I've just written? That's not including everyone's solo albums (Brian Wilson has 10, Mike Love has 4, Al Jardine has 1 (and a live album), Bruce Johnston has 3 (only one of which was released after he joined the band), David Marks has 3 albums he released with Surf City All Stars, Dennis Wilson has 1, Carl Wilson has 2, Ricky Fataar released 7 albums while a member of The Flames and performed on the two albums The Rutles released (among other things) and Blondie Chaplin has 2), everything connected to the sessions for Smile, all of the band's compilation albums, live albums and unreleased material, all of the behind the scenes stuff that happened among the members (one example that springs to mind is Dennis Wilson's...less that positive comments regarding M.I.U. Album, although Brian Wilson's troubles with Engene Landy are also worth a read into) AND various weird stories that most of you would have a hard time believing even if I told you them completely straight faced and in person (for example, one of the songs the band recorded and released was written by Charles Manson. Yes, THAT Charles Manson!). And I still think I'd be missing a few things with all of that! Basically, The Beach Boys have a LOT of history, and probably more than I could write down in a month even if I gave up sleep and focused purely on researching the band! So, if you have read this and want to learn more about The Beach Boys, you should definitely go do it, as what I've given you in this article is only scratching the surface of the band's history!
Anyway, now that you are all up to date on The Beach Boys, know what to put on your lists of albums to check out and what to avoid like the plague and have probably sat through enough text to have you wondering whether I've considered writing a book on the band before now (I haven't, but thanks for the idea!), let's turn our eyes to That's Why God Made The Radio. Is it a good album or not? Well, let's find out together!
First up, the cover of the album. I have to be honest, I really like this cover! It's just got that little touch to it that makes me think of summer, along with a rather nice colour palette that is rather varied. It also has a look to it that makes me think of hand done art, which is a really nice thing to see. You could probably argue that the band are aiming a bit too hard for the nostalgia feel with this cover art, but, considering the band had been around for over fifty years by the time this album came out, I think that might be a slightly unfair accusation to throw at the cover art. The way I see it, they can get away with artwork that appeals to nostalgia because, well, they technically ARE part of the nostalgia anyway. I mean, this isn't some new band who is deliberately trying to sound like The Beach Boys in an attempt to be retro: this IS The Beach Boys.
Anyway, now we've looked at the album artwork, let's move on to the music!
The general sound that you'll get from this album is...well, The Beach Boys' most well known works. I know this is a redundant statement (it's basically "The Beach Boys sound like The Beach Boys"), but, if you've heard a song by The Beach Boys, you'll know what to expect. For the benefit of those of you who have joined us from under the rocks, though, I'll give you a basic run down: brilliantly harmonised vocals, catchy pop hooks, fairly simple musicianship and a focus on being upbeat (well, at least for the first half of the album: the second half is surprisingly contemplative!) and fairly relaxing. Think an a cappella group singing on a bright sunny day with a few of the members laying down a beat with other instruments to support what the guys are singing and you're not too far from the mark. Or, for the metal fans who don't mind me making a (probably not especially amusing) joke, imagine Hansi Kursch singing a stripped down (and acoustic) Stratovarius song.
...That made more sense in my head, didn't it?
Anyway, the thing that will surprise you is that, if you can approach the album expecting just an enjoyable album, the band live up to that expectation (and, for the most part, exceeds it) wonderfully, which is very impressive for a bunch of guys who were about to enter their 70's! I'm probably going to piss off a HUGE number of metal fans when I say this, but, had Black Sabbath been able to release 13 in 2012 (as they'd apparently originally been aiming for), I'd have said that this would been the better album without any hesitation! Having not listened to anything by The Beach Boys that dates after 1967, I have to say that the only thing that really drags the album down is that the hooks aren't as strong as they were on the band's classic material (it takes a few listens for the songs to really stick in your head) and the noticeable use of auto tune on the album shows just how much older the guys have gotten since their heyday. Aside from that? I have to say that the band's material stands up rather nicely if you compare it to the band's heyday! Sure, none of it is going to become among your favourite songs by the band if you're already familiar with the band, but it's still a very enjoyable listening experience overall. Every song is worth a listen, although I will say that the songs that I return to the most are in the first half of the album (although the closing four tracks are definitely worth hearing at least once together, as they're brilliant for closing the album off!). The ending of "Summer's Gone" (the sound of falling rain) feels to be a very nice way to close off the album, ironically doing the same kind of thing that Black Sabbath did for 13 by closing the album off in a way that is meaningful for those of you aware of the history of both bands... (in Black Sabbath's case, as a call back to how their debut album opened and, in The Beach Boys' case, as an acknowledgement that this might well be the last time we get to hear The Beach Boys together on a record...although plans were in motion for another album by the band for a period of time after this was released, so maybe that's me reading too much into it with post-50th anniversary reunion knowledge!)
The production on the album, handled by Brian Wilson, is honestly really good! Not too loudly mastered (which, admittedly, might be because a loud master wouldn't suit the band's music), very nicely mixed...it's all just wonderful! Put this album on when you want to just lie back and relax and I'm confident that, when the album ends nearly 40 minutes later, you'll be more chilled than a cucumber salad that's just come out of the fridge!
...I know, odd metaphor. Point is, if you want to kick back and relax, this album is a wonderful musical accompaniment to that.
So, final thoughts on the album? If you give it some time to grow on you and don't mind the use of auto tune, you'll almost certainly enjoy this album. While I think the album suffers from a lack of a really brilliant and instantly catchy song to encourage repeated listens with, I'd rather take an album that I have to listen to a few times to really be hooked upon than an album with one great song and a bunch of unmemorable crap surrounding it. This album is definitely not the latter, that's for certain! If you haven't heard The Beach Boys before now, this probably isn't the best starting place with them, but it's certainly not the worst album they've released by any measure. Considering the age of the performers, it's honestly surprising that they had an album of this level of quality in them! This isn't a classic album by the band by any measure, but, if you avoided this album when it came out due to expecting it to be a fiasco, then consider your fears quelled: it's a very enjoyable album, although you will need to give it a few listens for the hooks to leave a real impression on you.
Final Rating: 7 Out Of 10
A very enjoyable album that suffers from a lack of instantly memorable songs (although they all grow on you) and an overuse of auto tune. If this turns out to be the last Beach Boys album, then at least they went out on a high note!
Personal Favourite Tracks: "Isn't It Time", "Daybreak Over The Ocean", "Strange World"
So, rather go into the huge amount of detail that I'd like to go into, I'm going to give a VERY brief overview of the band's history so that I can cover the important stuff, rather than cover every little detail that I could cover. Now, I know most people would love me to give every detail that I could give about the band, but, partially because there's so much that I would need to cover (bear in mind, these guys have been around for about fifty three years now) and partially because you probably won't be interested in a lot of the details, I've opted for a skim read version of the band's history, otherwise I'll probably still be writing this in June...2015.
So, the band formed in 1961 (although they'd been vaguely making progress on stuff since 1958) with the line up of Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson (all of whom were brothers), Mike Love (who was a cousin of the Wilsons) and Al Jardine, released their debut album (Surfin' Safari) in October 1962, which peaked at number 32 on the US charts, and pretty much continued a successful run of albums up until 1967's Smiley Smile (their TWELFTH album, if you're curious). During this period of time, the band's songwriting was mostly lead by Brian Wilson, who also produced their albums from 1963's Surfer Girl.
Their albums during this period of time (and the line up that played on each album: I'm not going to bother counting all of the session musicians, so I'm only going to count people identified as actually being members of the band) were:
Surfin' Safari (October 1962) (band members were Mike Love, Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, David Marks and Al Jardine)
Surfin' U.S.A. (March 1963) (same line up as Surfin' Safari, but without Al Jardine)
Surfer Girl (September 1963) (same line up as Surfin' Safari)
Little Deuce Coupe (October 1963) (same line up as Surfin' Safari)
Shut Down Volume 2 (March 1964) (same line up as Surfin' Safari, but without David Marks)
All Summer Long (July 1964) (same as Shut Down Volume 2)
The Beach Boys' Christmas Album (November 1964) (same line up as Shut Down Volume 2)
The Beach Boys Today! (March 1965) (same line up as Shut Down Volume 2)
Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) (July 1965) (same line up as Shut Down Volume 2, but with Bruce Johnston now a member of the band)
Beach Boys' Party! (November 1965) (a covers album, but you can thank this album for the band's cover of "Barbara Ann"!) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)...and also featured a guest appearance from Dean Torrence, who was half of Jay & Dean)
Pet Sounds (May 1966) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!))
Smiley Smile (September 1967) (technically qualifies as part of the next era of the band, but I prefer to put it here due to the fact that a lot of the material was from Smile and Brian Wilson wrote or co-wrote most of the material on the album.) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!))
This is the period of the band which you're most likely to be familiar with, as most of their most famous songs came from this era of the band.
After this, Brian Wilson (for various reasons, including his declining mental health and the failure to make Smile materialise) started to give up control of the band to create a more collaborative effort with the band's material.
Their albums during this period of time were:
Wild Honey (December 1967) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!))
Friends (June 1968) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!))
20/20 (February 1969) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!))
Sunflower (August 1970) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!))
Surf's Up (August 1971) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!))
Carl And The Passions - "So Tough" (May 1972) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), but with the addition of Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar)
Holland (January 1973) (same line up as Carl And The Passions - "So Tough", but without Bruce Johnston)
This period of the band's history, while not especially well known among the mainstream, is pretty universally considered to be great by the band's fans, so, if you want to dig into the band at the deep end (for some bizarre reason...), you should pick stuff from this era of the band.
After this, Brian Wilson pretty much got himself back to being the band's main creative spirit again for a tiny period of time.
Their albums during this period of time were:
15 Big Ones (July 1976) (technically a covers album, with a few originals) (same line up as Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), but without Bruce Johnston)
Love You (April 1977) (same line up as 15 Big Ones)
These two albums are basically between when the band are considered great and when the band were considered to have gone downhill, so mention these with care around fans of the band, as you might cause a flame war in the wrong circumstances.
After this, Mike Love took over the band and, up until the release of Stars And Stripes Vol. 1 and the death of Carl Wilson, the band pretty much kept going.
Their albums during this period of time were:
M.I.U. Album (October 1978) (same line up as 15 Big Ones)
L.A. (Light Album) (March 1979) (same line up as 15 Big Ones, but with Bruce Johnston)
Keepin' The Summer Alive (March 1980) (same line up as L.A. (Light Album))
The Beach Boys (June 1985) (first album released after the death of Dennis Wilson: the rest of the band's line up is still the same as on Keepin' The Summer Alive)
Still Cruisin' (August 1989) (same line up as on The Beach Boys)
Summer In Paradise (August 1992) (same line up as on The Beach Boys, but without Brian Wilson)
Stars And Stripes Vol. 1 (August 1996) (a collaboration album with a collection of country artists) (same line up as The Beach Boys)
This era of the band...well, let's put it this way: there's a reason a lot of fans of The Beach Boys don't like Mike Love. All of the albums from this period of time are generally held to be pretty poor at best and outright terrible at worst. If you have not listened to The Beach Boys before now, you are HIGHLY recommended to avoid these albums and only come to them if you are the kind of person who wants to own every studio album released by the band.
After Carl Wilson's death, the band splintered. The band did still tour (mostly with Mike Love and Bruce Johnson as the most recognisable members of the band), but the next studio album by The Beach Boys would not come until the release of That's Why God Made The Radio in June 2012, in time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the band's first album. It also is the first album by The Beach Boys to have David Marks in the band since Little Deuce Coupe, although only on rhythm guitar: the actual members of the band who sung on the album were Bruce Johnston, Al Jardine, Mike Love and Brian Wilson.
...And now you see why I had to go for a VERY bare bones history of the band. The sheer amount of stuff I would have had to cover would have taken a HUGE amount of time to write. I mean, everything I've just written? That's not including everyone's solo albums (Brian Wilson has 10, Mike Love has 4, Al Jardine has 1 (and a live album), Bruce Johnston has 3 (only one of which was released after he joined the band), David Marks has 3 albums he released with Surf City All Stars, Dennis Wilson has 1, Carl Wilson has 2, Ricky Fataar released 7 albums while a member of The Flames and performed on the two albums The Rutles released (among other things) and Blondie Chaplin has 2), everything connected to the sessions for Smile, all of the band's compilation albums, live albums and unreleased material, all of the behind the scenes stuff that happened among the members (one example that springs to mind is Dennis Wilson's...less that positive comments regarding M.I.U. Album, although Brian Wilson's troubles with Engene Landy are also worth a read into) AND various weird stories that most of you would have a hard time believing even if I told you them completely straight faced and in person (for example, one of the songs the band recorded and released was written by Charles Manson. Yes, THAT Charles Manson!). And I still think I'd be missing a few things with all of that! Basically, The Beach Boys have a LOT of history, and probably more than I could write down in a month even if I gave up sleep and focused purely on researching the band! So, if you have read this and want to learn more about The Beach Boys, you should definitely go do it, as what I've given you in this article is only scratching the surface of the band's history!
Anyway, now that you are all up to date on The Beach Boys, know what to put on your lists of albums to check out and what to avoid like the plague and have probably sat through enough text to have you wondering whether I've considered writing a book on the band before now (I haven't, but thanks for the idea!), let's turn our eyes to That's Why God Made The Radio. Is it a good album or not? Well, let's find out together!
First up, the cover of the album. I have to be honest, I really like this cover! It's just got that little touch to it that makes me think of summer, along with a rather nice colour palette that is rather varied. It also has a look to it that makes me think of hand done art, which is a really nice thing to see. You could probably argue that the band are aiming a bit too hard for the nostalgia feel with this cover art, but, considering the band had been around for over fifty years by the time this album came out, I think that might be a slightly unfair accusation to throw at the cover art. The way I see it, they can get away with artwork that appeals to nostalgia because, well, they technically ARE part of the nostalgia anyway. I mean, this isn't some new band who is deliberately trying to sound like The Beach Boys in an attempt to be retro: this IS The Beach Boys.
Anyway, now we've looked at the album artwork, let's move on to the music!
The general sound that you'll get from this album is...well, The Beach Boys' most well known works. I know this is a redundant statement (it's basically "The Beach Boys sound like The Beach Boys"), but, if you've heard a song by The Beach Boys, you'll know what to expect. For the benefit of those of you who have joined us from under the rocks, though, I'll give you a basic run down: brilliantly harmonised vocals, catchy pop hooks, fairly simple musicianship and a focus on being upbeat (well, at least for the first half of the album: the second half is surprisingly contemplative!) and fairly relaxing. Think an a cappella group singing on a bright sunny day with a few of the members laying down a beat with other instruments to support what the guys are singing and you're not too far from the mark. Or, for the metal fans who don't mind me making a (probably not especially amusing) joke, imagine Hansi Kursch singing a stripped down (and acoustic) Stratovarius song.
...That made more sense in my head, didn't it?
Anyway, the thing that will surprise you is that, if you can approach the album expecting just an enjoyable album, the band live up to that expectation (and, for the most part, exceeds it) wonderfully, which is very impressive for a bunch of guys who were about to enter their 70's! I'm probably going to piss off a HUGE number of metal fans when I say this, but, had Black Sabbath been able to release 13 in 2012 (as they'd apparently originally been aiming for), I'd have said that this would been the better album without any hesitation! Having not listened to anything by The Beach Boys that dates after 1967, I have to say that the only thing that really drags the album down is that the hooks aren't as strong as they were on the band's classic material (it takes a few listens for the songs to really stick in your head) and the noticeable use of auto tune on the album shows just how much older the guys have gotten since their heyday. Aside from that? I have to say that the band's material stands up rather nicely if you compare it to the band's heyday! Sure, none of it is going to become among your favourite songs by the band if you're already familiar with the band, but it's still a very enjoyable listening experience overall. Every song is worth a listen, although I will say that the songs that I return to the most are in the first half of the album (although the closing four tracks are definitely worth hearing at least once together, as they're brilliant for closing the album off!). The ending of "Summer's Gone" (the sound of falling rain) feels to be a very nice way to close off the album, ironically doing the same kind of thing that Black Sabbath did for 13 by closing the album off in a way that is meaningful for those of you aware of the history of both bands... (in Black Sabbath's case, as a call back to how their debut album opened and, in The Beach Boys' case, as an acknowledgement that this might well be the last time we get to hear The Beach Boys together on a record...although plans were in motion for another album by the band for a period of time after this was released, so maybe that's me reading too much into it with post-50th anniversary reunion knowledge!)
The production on the album, handled by Brian Wilson, is honestly really good! Not too loudly mastered (which, admittedly, might be because a loud master wouldn't suit the band's music), very nicely mixed...it's all just wonderful! Put this album on when you want to just lie back and relax and I'm confident that, when the album ends nearly 40 minutes later, you'll be more chilled than a cucumber salad that's just come out of the fridge!
...I know, odd metaphor. Point is, if you want to kick back and relax, this album is a wonderful musical accompaniment to that.
So, final thoughts on the album? If you give it some time to grow on you and don't mind the use of auto tune, you'll almost certainly enjoy this album. While I think the album suffers from a lack of a really brilliant and instantly catchy song to encourage repeated listens with, I'd rather take an album that I have to listen to a few times to really be hooked upon than an album with one great song and a bunch of unmemorable crap surrounding it. This album is definitely not the latter, that's for certain! If you haven't heard The Beach Boys before now, this probably isn't the best starting place with them, but it's certainly not the worst album they've released by any measure. Considering the age of the performers, it's honestly surprising that they had an album of this level of quality in them! This isn't a classic album by the band by any measure, but, if you avoided this album when it came out due to expecting it to be a fiasco, then consider your fears quelled: it's a very enjoyable album, although you will need to give it a few listens for the hooks to leave a real impression on you.
Final Rating: 7 Out Of 10
A very enjoyable album that suffers from a lack of instantly memorable songs (although they all grow on you) and an overuse of auto tune. If this turns out to be the last Beach Boys album, then at least they went out on a high note!
Personal Favourite Tracks: "Isn't It Time", "Daybreak Over The Ocean", "Strange World"
Saturday, 24 May 2014
Unisonic "For The Kingdom" EP Review
Unisonic have to be one of those supergroups that, if you didn't know what style of music they were playing, you'd be practically drooling over. You have ex-Helloween vocalist Michael Kiske, ex-Helloween, ex-Primal Fear and Gamma Ray guitarist (and vocalist, although he only provides backing vocals here) Kai Hansen, two members of Pink Cream 69 (drummer Kosta Zafiriou, who is no longer in the band, and bassist Dennis Ward, who is still in Pink Cream 69 and also provides backing vocals here) and occasional Krokus guitarist Mandy Meyer. So, with two power metal legends in the band and three members connected to hard rock, surely we must be in for some awesome power metal right out of the Keeper Of The Seven Keys duo, right?
...Ah, metalheads. Got to love their ability to ignore time!
Seriously, though, if you were looking at Unisonic self-titled debut album that came out in 2012 and were expecting anything even slightly like the Keepers duo, you probably went in with the wrong expectations entirely. You only needed to check out a single Place Vendome album to get an idea of what this project was likely to sound like, as it was about the closest reference most people would have had to the sound likely to occur. Throw in Gamma Ray's most recent album at the time Unisonic's debut came out (2010's To The Metal!) having a noticeably less complex approach to the music and, well, it would have been more reasonable to have assumed that we'd at most get something like that, only with Kiske singing instead of Kai.
So, with that in mind, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by their debut when I got it. True, saying it was a great album would be stretching the truth a bit, but the more laid back sound across the whole album compared to Gamma Ray was a nice change and I still enjoy giving a few songs from the album a listen every now and then (with a particular favourite being "Never Change Me"). It wasn't an album that would have lived up to the expectations placed on it, though: if you'd approached it with the assumption of hearing something like the Keepers duo, you'd no doubt have come away horribly disappointed, as it was probably best summed up as "hard rock with power metal touches". Still, for what it was, it was enjoyable enough.
Plus, I have more than a sneaky suspicion that taking part in Unisonic allowed Kai to recharge his batteries, as Gamma Ray's album from this year, Empire Of The Undead, was probably the heaviest album Gamma Ray have put out to date. It's probably a coincidence, but the timing for it matches up, so let me having my little conspiracy theory on that one, at least!
Anyway, Unisonic decided that, rather than give us a single for their upcoming album, they would drop an EP, with four live tracks, an exclusive track (which is no doubt going to end up becoming a bonus track on the final album in some markets...) and a track that will be on the album, which is due to be released in early August. So, being a curious git, I decided to check out the EP! What do I think of it? Well, let's find out, in this unofficial addition to The Singles Collection (since, well, it's technically a single if you remove the live tracks...)!
First of all, let's see the cover art for the EP. Erm...I don't like it much. Yellow and brown isn't an especially good combination of colours to start with, but I'm also not so fond of the change in the logo. The original one was brilliant, but this? My best way of describing it is that it's like the band decided to take apart a clock and use the contents of that to form their name. Maybe I'm being unfair, but the original logo had a charm and simplicity to it that worked, in orange (as seen on the Ignition EP) or blue (as seen on the Unisonic album). This just...doesn't work for me.
Anyway, now we've done at looking at that, let's look at the studio tracks!
First of all, we have the track that's going to be on the next album, "For The Kingdom". Musically, it's pretty heavy compared to most of what the band did on their last album, although saying it really enters power metal territory would probably be a bit untruthful, as it's still got a solid base in hard rock music (although it's definitely more complex than typical hard rock music: it doesn't sound like the kind of thing you'd expect to hear from AC/DC, at least!). Vocally, you can tell that Kiske is pretty much in his comfort zone throughout this track, as he doesn't push himself to do any of the impressive high notes that he demonstrated he could still do on "Where Clock Hands Freeze" from Avantasia's 2013 album The Mystery Of Time. Mind you, Kiske singing in his comfort zone is still better than most vocalists pushing themselves to sing at their best, so that's not necessarily a bad thing, but I think it would be good to see Kiske push his voice a bit more, even if only to reassure power metal fans that he has embraced his connection to the power metal scene now. The actual song itself, based on my few listens to it, doesn't stand out on the same level as "Unisonic" does, but it has a catchy chorus and some brilliant soloing from both Hansen and Meyer. I think the verses of the song could have done with a better vocal melody, as it doesn't really stick in my mind very well (and vaguely reminds me of that from another Unisonic song, for some reason...can't place which one, though!), but the whole song is pretty enjoyable if you approach it without the expectation of hearing something out of the Keepers duo (which I've probably mentioned more times than I should have over the course of this review...).
Next up, the EP exclusive track, "You Come Undone". And it already starts off on a wrong foot for me: most of the lead part at the start of the song is pretty much the opening riff of Judas Priest's "The Sentinel", with a few minor changes to it to try to throw you off. Since that's one of my favourite Judas Priest songs and is one of the band's songs that most of their fans could hum along to in their sleep ...yeah, you're not going to impress the Priest fans by doing that, guys! Still, for what it's worth, once the song gets past that minor annoyance for me, it genuinely is a very enjoyable song! Strong vocal melody throughout the song, great playing on the part of all of the musicians and Kiske even puts on a very inspired performance compared to "For The Kingdom"! This is probably closer to being power metal than "For The Kingdom" is and strikes me as the more enjoyable track without too much difficulty, which begs the question of why the band made this the EP exclusive track and not the track that was going on the album. If it was genuinely just due to the members thinking "For The Kingdom" was the stronger song, then I think that they might want to get someone to provide an extra ear to let them know when they have a song that they should keep for the album. If it's because it's not typical of what the rest of the album sounds like...well, I suspect we're going to be in for a rather dull second album by the band, as "For The Kingdom" didn't win me over quite as quickly as "You Come Undone" did.
And now we come to what is basically a four song live EP, recorded when the band made their live appearance at 2012's Masters Of Rock Festival. Understandably, the songs are taken from the band's first (and, at the time, only) album and are "Unisonic" (with an introduction in the form of Wagner's "The Ride Of The Valkyries" and followed with a variety of movie quotes. Because when you think of hard rock, you think of Wagner and the movies...), "Never Too Late", "Star Rider" (which was one of my least favourite songs on the band's debut album) and "Souls Alive". Not a lot to say about them really, if you liked the original songs, you get them basically played just as well as you do on the studio versions. Kiske seems to struggle a bit at the start of "Unisonic", but he recovers very quickly and delivers the songs very well in a live environment. The crowd are VERY audible for a lot of the time the live tracks are playing, which really adds to "Unisonic" in particular when you hear the crowd enthusiastically singing the chorus of the song without Kiske (presumably because he got the crowd to sing it and not because he forgot the words). Kai and Ward can be heard providing backing vocals a few times, but, for the most part, they only do it noticeably on "Star Rider": for the most part, you could be forgiven for barely noticing them otherwise. If I had to make a major criticism of the live tracks that isn't actually related to the band's music, it's that the band don't really interact with the audience much, from what I hear on the EP. Beyond getting the audience to join in with the singing a few times, the only time the band really acknowledges the audience is for a tiny bit between "Never Too Late" and "Star Rider" (which isn't even much: it's literally just Kiske saying "Hey! You're looking good!"). To be fair, it's a festival appearance, so the band wouldn't have a lot of time to, say, give a long winded chat with the audience like "Hey! We're Unisonic and it's great to be hear at Master Of Rock Festival! You seen some good bands since you got here? I don't think I heard you, I said "YOU SEEN SOME GOOD BANDS SINCE YOU GOT HERE?" Wow, OK, I heard you that time! Well, hopefully those of you who didn't feel like answering will be coming away saying "I saw Unisonic and they were brilliant!", although probably not with that choice of words! We're going to play a tune that we hear a lot of you guys really like, so how do you feel about hearing "Souls Alive"?", but it seems a tiny bit rude to not at least try to make the audience feel like they're being welcomed to see you play live. End of the day, you might be getting paid to play live, but your audience are the people who have taken time out of their lives (some of which can be very busy, depending on their jobs and personal lives) just to see you perform, so you might as well make them feel welcome while you're there! Unless you're playing a style of music which is MEANT to make you feel uncomfortable or isn't meant to be especially cheerful, like extreme metal, or you're like Dir En Grey, whose music might as well be labelled under "WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN" for their genre, you should at least try to interact with your audience.
The production on the studio tracks is pretty good, but I think the issue I have to return to is my typical one: the mastering is too loud (although it does give the songs a nice, metallic sound to them which I quite like) and the bass feels lacking in the production. The live tracks are honestly a nice way to highlight the issue with studio production, as I'd say the production on the live tracks, aside from the backing vocals being too quiet, is pretty much what I'd consider to be a perfect example of what you should be able to sound like on record (only without any flaws in the performance, of course!). Call me old fashioned or stuck in the dark ages, but one of the things I like about recordings from the 50's (and with folk music in general) is that it was all done in one take, so, if you messed up, you had to go from the top again. Sure, that might be impractical in this day and age (especially for longer songs: I HIGHLY doubt Dream Theater could have recorded their epic songs all in one take like artists in the 50's could), but a good quality live recording always sounds better to my ears than a studio recording done with modern production, as you can actually hear all of the instruments without any difficulty in most cases and the issue with loudness is USUALLY avoided (I say "USUALLY" because, if you have a poor sound technician, you can still end up basically falling victim to the loudness war, but that's why a poor sound tech doesn't tend to get work with any professional bands!). Ironically, I don't like live albums much because I like to hear the songs how the artist intended them to sound as opposed to how they have to sound in a live environment due to various restrictions (not to mention that I don't see the point of buying the same tracks again unless there's been some noticeable reworking of them: for example, I might buy a record where an artist worked with an orchestra for a special show, but not if it's just a typical show!), but I guess that's a debate for another time!
So, final thoughts? Well, the EP exclusive track is definitely worth picking up, the live tracks are very solidly performed (if lacking in terms of how the band interact with their audience), the track that will be on the band's upcoming album is fine (if not as good as the EP exclusive track) and, aside from my usual complaints about modern day production being noticeable here, it's all pretty good! If you have a spare £4 and are interested in hearing what Unisonic can do if you don't compare them to Helloween, it's definitely worth picking up! If you're not interested in Unisonic unless they sound like a complete (if modern) clone of the Keepers duo...let it go, dude, it's not going to happen! But seriously, you'll likely not find this worth picking up unless you enjoyed their debut album.
Final Rating: 8 Out Of 10
A very enjoyable EP that will tide over Unisonic fans happily until the release of the band's second album in August. While I'm slightly concerned that "For The Kingdom" is not the best song of the two studio recordings and what this means for Unisonic's next album, it's still a strong enough song that I'm already awaiting the pre-order link for the full album to go up!
Personal Favourite Track: "You Come Undone"
...Ah, metalheads. Got to love their ability to ignore time!
Seriously, though, if you were looking at Unisonic self-titled debut album that came out in 2012 and were expecting anything even slightly like the Keepers duo, you probably went in with the wrong expectations entirely. You only needed to check out a single Place Vendome album to get an idea of what this project was likely to sound like, as it was about the closest reference most people would have had to the sound likely to occur. Throw in Gamma Ray's most recent album at the time Unisonic's debut came out (2010's To The Metal!) having a noticeably less complex approach to the music and, well, it would have been more reasonable to have assumed that we'd at most get something like that, only with Kiske singing instead of Kai.
So, with that in mind, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by their debut when I got it. True, saying it was a great album would be stretching the truth a bit, but the more laid back sound across the whole album compared to Gamma Ray was a nice change and I still enjoy giving a few songs from the album a listen every now and then (with a particular favourite being "Never Change Me"). It wasn't an album that would have lived up to the expectations placed on it, though: if you'd approached it with the assumption of hearing something like the Keepers duo, you'd no doubt have come away horribly disappointed, as it was probably best summed up as "hard rock with power metal touches". Still, for what it was, it was enjoyable enough.
Plus, I have more than a sneaky suspicion that taking part in Unisonic allowed Kai to recharge his batteries, as Gamma Ray's album from this year, Empire Of The Undead, was probably the heaviest album Gamma Ray have put out to date. It's probably a coincidence, but the timing for it matches up, so let me having my little conspiracy theory on that one, at least!
Anyway, Unisonic decided that, rather than give us a single for their upcoming album, they would drop an EP, with four live tracks, an exclusive track (which is no doubt going to end up becoming a bonus track on the final album in some markets...) and a track that will be on the album, which is due to be released in early August. So, being a curious git, I decided to check out the EP! What do I think of it? Well, let's find out, in this unofficial addition to The Singles Collection (since, well, it's technically a single if you remove the live tracks...)!
First of all, let's see the cover art for the EP. Erm...I don't like it much. Yellow and brown isn't an especially good combination of colours to start with, but I'm also not so fond of the change in the logo. The original one was brilliant, but this? My best way of describing it is that it's like the band decided to take apart a clock and use the contents of that to form their name. Maybe I'm being unfair, but the original logo had a charm and simplicity to it that worked, in orange (as seen on the Ignition EP) or blue (as seen on the Unisonic album). This just...doesn't work for me.
Anyway, now we've done at looking at that, let's look at the studio tracks!
First of all, we have the track that's going to be on the next album, "For The Kingdom". Musically, it's pretty heavy compared to most of what the band did on their last album, although saying it really enters power metal territory would probably be a bit untruthful, as it's still got a solid base in hard rock music (although it's definitely more complex than typical hard rock music: it doesn't sound like the kind of thing you'd expect to hear from AC/DC, at least!). Vocally, you can tell that Kiske is pretty much in his comfort zone throughout this track, as he doesn't push himself to do any of the impressive high notes that he demonstrated he could still do on "Where Clock Hands Freeze" from Avantasia's 2013 album The Mystery Of Time. Mind you, Kiske singing in his comfort zone is still better than most vocalists pushing themselves to sing at their best, so that's not necessarily a bad thing, but I think it would be good to see Kiske push his voice a bit more, even if only to reassure power metal fans that he has embraced his connection to the power metal scene now. The actual song itself, based on my few listens to it, doesn't stand out on the same level as "Unisonic" does, but it has a catchy chorus and some brilliant soloing from both Hansen and Meyer. I think the verses of the song could have done with a better vocal melody, as it doesn't really stick in my mind very well (and vaguely reminds me of that from another Unisonic song, for some reason...can't place which one, though!), but the whole song is pretty enjoyable if you approach it without the expectation of hearing something out of the Keepers duo (which I've probably mentioned more times than I should have over the course of this review...).
Next up, the EP exclusive track, "You Come Undone". And it already starts off on a wrong foot for me: most of the lead part at the start of the song is pretty much the opening riff of Judas Priest's "The Sentinel", with a few minor changes to it to try to throw you off. Since that's one of my favourite Judas Priest songs and is one of the band's songs that most of their fans could hum along to in their sleep ...yeah, you're not going to impress the Priest fans by doing that, guys! Still, for what it's worth, once the song gets past that minor annoyance for me, it genuinely is a very enjoyable song! Strong vocal melody throughout the song, great playing on the part of all of the musicians and Kiske even puts on a very inspired performance compared to "For The Kingdom"! This is probably closer to being power metal than "For The Kingdom" is and strikes me as the more enjoyable track without too much difficulty, which begs the question of why the band made this the EP exclusive track and not the track that was going on the album. If it was genuinely just due to the members thinking "For The Kingdom" was the stronger song, then I think that they might want to get someone to provide an extra ear to let them know when they have a song that they should keep for the album. If it's because it's not typical of what the rest of the album sounds like...well, I suspect we're going to be in for a rather dull second album by the band, as "For The Kingdom" didn't win me over quite as quickly as "You Come Undone" did.
And now we come to what is basically a four song live EP, recorded when the band made their live appearance at 2012's Masters Of Rock Festival. Understandably, the songs are taken from the band's first (and, at the time, only) album and are "Unisonic" (with an introduction in the form of Wagner's "The Ride Of The Valkyries" and followed with a variety of movie quotes. Because when you think of hard rock, you think of Wagner and the movies...), "Never Too Late", "Star Rider" (which was one of my least favourite songs on the band's debut album) and "Souls Alive". Not a lot to say about them really, if you liked the original songs, you get them basically played just as well as you do on the studio versions. Kiske seems to struggle a bit at the start of "Unisonic", but he recovers very quickly and delivers the songs very well in a live environment. The crowd are VERY audible for a lot of the time the live tracks are playing, which really adds to "Unisonic" in particular when you hear the crowd enthusiastically singing the chorus of the song without Kiske (presumably because he got the crowd to sing it and not because he forgot the words). Kai and Ward can be heard providing backing vocals a few times, but, for the most part, they only do it noticeably on "Star Rider": for the most part, you could be forgiven for barely noticing them otherwise. If I had to make a major criticism of the live tracks that isn't actually related to the band's music, it's that the band don't really interact with the audience much, from what I hear on the EP. Beyond getting the audience to join in with the singing a few times, the only time the band really acknowledges the audience is for a tiny bit between "Never Too Late" and "Star Rider" (which isn't even much: it's literally just Kiske saying "Hey! You're looking good!"). To be fair, it's a festival appearance, so the band wouldn't have a lot of time to, say, give a long winded chat with the audience like "Hey! We're Unisonic and it's great to be hear at Master Of Rock Festival! You seen some good bands since you got here? I don't think I heard you, I said "YOU SEEN SOME GOOD BANDS SINCE YOU GOT HERE?" Wow, OK, I heard you that time! Well, hopefully those of you who didn't feel like answering will be coming away saying "I saw Unisonic and they were brilliant!", although probably not with that choice of words! We're going to play a tune that we hear a lot of you guys really like, so how do you feel about hearing "Souls Alive"?", but it seems a tiny bit rude to not at least try to make the audience feel like they're being welcomed to see you play live. End of the day, you might be getting paid to play live, but your audience are the people who have taken time out of their lives (some of which can be very busy, depending on their jobs and personal lives) just to see you perform, so you might as well make them feel welcome while you're there! Unless you're playing a style of music which is MEANT to make you feel uncomfortable or isn't meant to be especially cheerful, like extreme metal, or you're like Dir En Grey, whose music might as well be labelled under "WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN" for their genre, you should at least try to interact with your audience.
The production on the studio tracks is pretty good, but I think the issue I have to return to is my typical one: the mastering is too loud (although it does give the songs a nice, metallic sound to them which I quite like) and the bass feels lacking in the production. The live tracks are honestly a nice way to highlight the issue with studio production, as I'd say the production on the live tracks, aside from the backing vocals being too quiet, is pretty much what I'd consider to be a perfect example of what you should be able to sound like on record (only without any flaws in the performance, of course!). Call me old fashioned or stuck in the dark ages, but one of the things I like about recordings from the 50's (and with folk music in general) is that it was all done in one take, so, if you messed up, you had to go from the top again. Sure, that might be impractical in this day and age (especially for longer songs: I HIGHLY doubt Dream Theater could have recorded their epic songs all in one take like artists in the 50's could), but a good quality live recording always sounds better to my ears than a studio recording done with modern production, as you can actually hear all of the instruments without any difficulty in most cases and the issue with loudness is USUALLY avoided (I say "USUALLY" because, if you have a poor sound technician, you can still end up basically falling victim to the loudness war, but that's why a poor sound tech doesn't tend to get work with any professional bands!). Ironically, I don't like live albums much because I like to hear the songs how the artist intended them to sound as opposed to how they have to sound in a live environment due to various restrictions (not to mention that I don't see the point of buying the same tracks again unless there's been some noticeable reworking of them: for example, I might buy a record where an artist worked with an orchestra for a special show, but not if it's just a typical show!), but I guess that's a debate for another time!
So, final thoughts? Well, the EP exclusive track is definitely worth picking up, the live tracks are very solidly performed (if lacking in terms of how the band interact with their audience), the track that will be on the band's upcoming album is fine (if not as good as the EP exclusive track) and, aside from my usual complaints about modern day production being noticeable here, it's all pretty good! If you have a spare £4 and are interested in hearing what Unisonic can do if you don't compare them to Helloween, it's definitely worth picking up! If you're not interested in Unisonic unless they sound like a complete (if modern) clone of the Keepers duo...let it go, dude, it's not going to happen! But seriously, you'll likely not find this worth picking up unless you enjoyed their debut album.
Final Rating: 8 Out Of 10
A very enjoyable EP that will tide over Unisonic fans happily until the release of the band's second album in August. While I'm slightly concerned that "For The Kingdom" is not the best song of the two studio recordings and what this means for Unisonic's next album, it's still a strong enough song that I'm already awaiting the pre-order link for the full album to go up!
Personal Favourite Track: "You Come Undone"
Wednesday, 21 May 2014
The Singles Collection: Sonic Syndicate "Black Hole Halo" Review
I have to be totally honest, I'm actually not a fan of Sonic Syndicate. However, after hearing just how bad a reception their last album (2010's We Rule The Night) had (to say it was poorly received would be an understatement!), I couldn't help finding my curiosity pointing towards their single for their upcoming self-titled fifth album. Call me a masochist if you want to...
Anyway, for those of you who are not familiar with the band, I'll give you a brief history of the band. The roots of Sweden's Sonic Syndicate came together in 2000 in the form of Tunes Of Silence, a band which included soon-to-be-founding members of Sonic Syndicate Richard, Roger and Robin Sjunnesson (the first two are brothers: Robin is their cousin). This band had A LOT of line up issues in their first two years, going through eight members between 2000 and 2002. I don't know for certain whether Tunes Of Silence was the Sjunnesson's band or not, since I've seen sources which indicate they broke away from the band and others which indicate that the band simply changed their name, but, either way, the Sjunnesson's next band was Fallen Angels, which they formed in 2002 with Andreas Martensson, Magnus Svensson and Kristoffer Backlund. This line up (with Richard on vocals, Roger on lead guitar and Robin on rhythm guitar) recorded and self-released two demos together in 2003 (Fall From Heaven and Black Lotus) before bassist Karen Axelsson replaced Magnus Svensson (what is it with the Swedish's fondness for doubling the number of times you need to use the letter "s"? Did they get an excess number of them when playing Scrabble or something?). This line up recorded 2004's demo Extraction and Sonic Syndicate's first album (although some still consider it to be a release by Fallen Angels, despite the name change occurring), 2005's Eden Fire. This album arguably contained the roots of the band's most well known line up, as the band's soon-to-be co-lead vocalist Roland Johansson was one of several session vocalists on the album.
Anyway, 2006 was when the band had their first real shake up of the band's line up, as Johansson joined the band while keyboardist Andreas Martensson and drummer Kristoffer Backlund were asked to leave due to lack of interest in the band and musical differences. Backlund (who is now in What Tomorrow Brings...as a vocalist, not a drummer!) was replaced with John Bergsston, while Roger Sjunnesson would take up keyboards and programming for the band after Martensson's departure. This line up would release two albums together, 2007's Only Inhuman and 2008's Love And Other Disasters (both of which was produced, interestingly enough, by Scar Symmetry guitarist Jonas Kjellgren, another melodic death metal band that also currently uses a double vocalist line up after the departure of their vocalist Christian Alvestam, who is generally considered to be the Mike Patton of melodic death metal...for the benefit of those not familiar with Mike Patton, that pretty much translates to "ridiculously wide vocal range combined with ridiculous versatility!").
It was after this when things started to get...interesting, to put it mildly. Roland Johansson quit the band due to a combination of issues with touring and personal life in 2009, later getting replaced by Nathan Biggs. He proceeded to sing on the band's 2010 album We Rule The Night, which...well, I mentioned in the intro how well THAT was received. The album also proved to be the last straw for Richard Sjunnesson, who left in October 2010 due to issues with the musical direction of the band. This caused Robin to step up to do backing vocals for the band after Christopher Andersson (who is currently the rhythm guitarist and growl vocalist for What Tomorrow Brings (remember me mentioning them earlier?) and is also doing screamed vocals for Dead After April) temporarily joined the band to fill in for Richard. The band took a break so that Roger Sjunnesson and John Bengtsson could focus on a new band with Richard Sjunnesson and Roland Johansson called The Unguided (whose debut album, Hell Frost, has artwork on it that looks uncannily like a daemon prince from the Warhammer Fantasy Battles tabletop wargame, if you ask me...), Biggs could do reviewing for Metal Hammer (which, incidentally, is something I've considered doing myself...anyone know how to apply to review for them and want to share the details?) and Karin began to study (I can't find what she did study, though). The band's return in May 2012 also had the news that Roger had left the band for undisclosed reasons (although he apparently is still on good terms with the other guys).
Since then, The Unguided (who apparently aren't allowed to perform material written by Sonic Syndicate due to Robin being the only member of the band refusing to let the guys do it...) have released their second album (with more artwork that is very reminiscent of Warhammer Fantasy Battles), Fragile Immortality, in early 2014 (which also featured Hansi Kursch of Blind Guardian on a bonus track on the album) and Sonic Syndicate, not to be outdone, have returned (...well, will return) with July's self-titled album.
And the first single from it was released onto youtube on the 16th of May. Yeah, a bit later than I probably should have done this, but, bear in mind, I only decided to do this today!
So, without further ado, let's hear what Sonic Syndicate have to offer us...
OK, before I start, I will admit that I've not listened to any of the band's previous stuff. So, if some of my comments seem odd to those aware of the band, please forgive my ignorance!
First of all, let's look at Nathan Bigg's vocals. He does a combination of harsh vocals and clean vocals and, honestly, I get reminded of Howard Jones (formerly of Killswitch Engage) with his clean vocals and a combination of Ronny Thorsen (formerly of Trail Of Tears) and Matt Heafy (of Trivium) with his harsh vocals. I don't know how he compares to his predecessors, but I have to say I really like this combination of vocals from the guy. Kudos to him, he sounds pretty good at what he does!
The music is very reminiscent of Gothenburg metal (think melodic death metal mixed with a bit or electronic music) mixed with metalcore, as there's these little programmed bits of music that add a dark and ominous edge to the music in a way that really enhances the songs, but the way the song is structured is rather reminiscent of metalcore (although I don't think there's anything that could be fairly called a breakdown in the song). It's got a chorus that is pretty catchy if you're into this style of music as well, which is definitely a nice touch. It's also fairly well performed as well, although it's nothing especially complicated by extreme metal standards.
However, I have to point out a noticeable flaw that springs to mind: the lyrics. They're not unbearably bad, but it says a lot that the first part of the chorus is almost like an overly used joke ("Halo/Halo/Just how low can you go"? Seriously, guys? I get English isn't your first language, but...actually, no, you don't even have that excuse if Nathan Biggs wrote the lyrics, as he's British!) and, if you're not into metalcore in the slightest, these lyrics WILL strike you as somewhat whiney (indeed, I get surprisingly reminded of "Lift Me Up" by Five Finger Death Punch with some of the lyrics...). It's probably a bit too typical of the metalcore subgenre in that regard, but I would not say that being typical of the genre is automatically bad!
The mixing is also fairly weak. The guitars are suspiciously undermixed a lot of the time, to the extent that you'd be forgiven for not noticing them a lot of the time in the song if you're not playing the song at loud volumes. The drums are also a bit too loudly mixed. Do I really need to hear every single cymbal hit over the guitars and every use of the kick drum throughout the whole song, even at fairly low volume on my computer? Probably not. The bass is also suspiciously quiet, but hey, extreme metal bassists generally don't do anything particularly interesting, so I'll let that one slide. The mastering also seems to be a bit loud, but, again, this is an issue with extreme metal in general, so I can't really complain too much about this.
So yeah...final thoughts? The mixing and mastering lets the song down a bit and the lyrics could have done with some improving, but, in and of itself, the song is pretty enjoyable. It's not going to be a favourite song for anyone, but it's enjoyable enough and the chorus has a strong enough hook that you'll likely be humming it for a while once you've gone away from the computer.
Final rating: 6 out of 10
If you're into this style of music, this is definitely worth a listen, but it isn't likely to be your favourite song in this genre of music. If you're not, then you probably won't enjoy this much, but it's not so bad that you'll hate it with a burning passion, unless you can't stand extreme metal vocals!
Anyway, for those of you who are not familiar with the band, I'll give you a brief history of the band. The roots of Sweden's Sonic Syndicate came together in 2000 in the form of Tunes Of Silence, a band which included soon-to-be-founding members of Sonic Syndicate Richard, Roger and Robin Sjunnesson (the first two are brothers: Robin is their cousin). This band had A LOT of line up issues in their first two years, going through eight members between 2000 and 2002. I don't know for certain whether Tunes Of Silence was the Sjunnesson's band or not, since I've seen sources which indicate they broke away from the band and others which indicate that the band simply changed their name, but, either way, the Sjunnesson's next band was Fallen Angels, which they formed in 2002 with Andreas Martensson, Magnus Svensson and Kristoffer Backlund. This line up (with Richard on vocals, Roger on lead guitar and Robin on rhythm guitar) recorded and self-released two demos together in 2003 (Fall From Heaven and Black Lotus) before bassist Karen Axelsson replaced Magnus Svensson (what is it with the Swedish's fondness for doubling the number of times you need to use the letter "s"? Did they get an excess number of them when playing Scrabble or something?). This line up recorded 2004's demo Extraction and Sonic Syndicate's first album (although some still consider it to be a release by Fallen Angels, despite the name change occurring), 2005's Eden Fire. This album arguably contained the roots of the band's most well known line up, as the band's soon-to-be co-lead vocalist Roland Johansson was one of several session vocalists on the album.
Anyway, 2006 was when the band had their first real shake up of the band's line up, as Johansson joined the band while keyboardist Andreas Martensson and drummer Kristoffer Backlund were asked to leave due to lack of interest in the band and musical differences. Backlund (who is now in What Tomorrow Brings...as a vocalist, not a drummer!) was replaced with John Bergsston, while Roger Sjunnesson would take up keyboards and programming for the band after Martensson's departure. This line up would release two albums together, 2007's Only Inhuman and 2008's Love And Other Disasters (both of which was produced, interestingly enough, by Scar Symmetry guitarist Jonas Kjellgren, another melodic death metal band that also currently uses a double vocalist line up after the departure of their vocalist Christian Alvestam, who is generally considered to be the Mike Patton of melodic death metal...for the benefit of those not familiar with Mike Patton, that pretty much translates to "ridiculously wide vocal range combined with ridiculous versatility!").
It was after this when things started to get...interesting, to put it mildly. Roland Johansson quit the band due to a combination of issues with touring and personal life in 2009, later getting replaced by Nathan Biggs. He proceeded to sing on the band's 2010 album We Rule The Night, which...well, I mentioned in the intro how well THAT was received. The album also proved to be the last straw for Richard Sjunnesson, who left in October 2010 due to issues with the musical direction of the band. This caused Robin to step up to do backing vocals for the band after Christopher Andersson (who is currently the rhythm guitarist and growl vocalist for What Tomorrow Brings (remember me mentioning them earlier?) and is also doing screamed vocals for Dead After April) temporarily joined the band to fill in for Richard. The band took a break so that Roger Sjunnesson and John Bengtsson could focus on a new band with Richard Sjunnesson and Roland Johansson called The Unguided (whose debut album, Hell Frost, has artwork on it that looks uncannily like a daemon prince from the Warhammer Fantasy Battles tabletop wargame, if you ask me...), Biggs could do reviewing for Metal Hammer (which, incidentally, is something I've considered doing myself...anyone know how to apply to review for them and want to share the details?) and Karin began to study (I can't find what she did study, though). The band's return in May 2012 also had the news that Roger had left the band for undisclosed reasons (although he apparently is still on good terms with the other guys).
Since then, The Unguided (who apparently aren't allowed to perform material written by Sonic Syndicate due to Robin being the only member of the band refusing to let the guys do it...) have released their second album (with more artwork that is very reminiscent of Warhammer Fantasy Battles), Fragile Immortality, in early 2014 (which also featured Hansi Kursch of Blind Guardian on a bonus track on the album) and Sonic Syndicate, not to be outdone, have returned (...well, will return) with July's self-titled album.
And the first single from it was released onto youtube on the 16th of May. Yeah, a bit later than I probably should have done this, but, bear in mind, I only decided to do this today!
So, without further ado, let's hear what Sonic Syndicate have to offer us...
OK, before I start, I will admit that I've not listened to any of the band's previous stuff. So, if some of my comments seem odd to those aware of the band, please forgive my ignorance!
First of all, let's look at Nathan Bigg's vocals. He does a combination of harsh vocals and clean vocals and, honestly, I get reminded of Howard Jones (formerly of Killswitch Engage) with his clean vocals and a combination of Ronny Thorsen (formerly of Trail Of Tears) and Matt Heafy (of Trivium) with his harsh vocals. I don't know how he compares to his predecessors, but I have to say I really like this combination of vocals from the guy. Kudos to him, he sounds pretty good at what he does!
The music is very reminiscent of Gothenburg metal (think melodic death metal mixed with a bit or electronic music) mixed with metalcore, as there's these little programmed bits of music that add a dark and ominous edge to the music in a way that really enhances the songs, but the way the song is structured is rather reminiscent of metalcore (although I don't think there's anything that could be fairly called a breakdown in the song). It's got a chorus that is pretty catchy if you're into this style of music as well, which is definitely a nice touch. It's also fairly well performed as well, although it's nothing especially complicated by extreme metal standards.
However, I have to point out a noticeable flaw that springs to mind: the lyrics. They're not unbearably bad, but it says a lot that the first part of the chorus is almost like an overly used joke ("Halo/Halo/Just how low can you go"? Seriously, guys? I get English isn't your first language, but...actually, no, you don't even have that excuse if Nathan Biggs wrote the lyrics, as he's British!) and, if you're not into metalcore in the slightest, these lyrics WILL strike you as somewhat whiney (indeed, I get surprisingly reminded of "Lift Me Up" by Five Finger Death Punch with some of the lyrics...). It's probably a bit too typical of the metalcore subgenre in that regard, but I would not say that being typical of the genre is automatically bad!
The mixing is also fairly weak. The guitars are suspiciously undermixed a lot of the time, to the extent that you'd be forgiven for not noticing them a lot of the time in the song if you're not playing the song at loud volumes. The drums are also a bit too loudly mixed. Do I really need to hear every single cymbal hit over the guitars and every use of the kick drum throughout the whole song, even at fairly low volume on my computer? Probably not. The bass is also suspiciously quiet, but hey, extreme metal bassists generally don't do anything particularly interesting, so I'll let that one slide. The mastering also seems to be a bit loud, but, again, this is an issue with extreme metal in general, so I can't really complain too much about this.
So yeah...final thoughts? The mixing and mastering lets the song down a bit and the lyrics could have done with some improving, but, in and of itself, the song is pretty enjoyable. It's not going to be a favourite song for anyone, but it's enjoyable enough and the chorus has a strong enough hook that you'll likely be humming it for a while once you've gone away from the computer.
Final rating: 6 out of 10
If you're into this style of music, this is definitely worth a listen, but it isn't likely to be your favourite song in this genre of music. If you're not, then you probably won't enjoy this much, but it's not so bad that you'll hate it with a burning passion, unless you can't stand extreme metal vocals!
Sunday, 18 May 2014
Bon Jovi "What About Now" Review
There are some bands which metalheads tend to loath with a passion. Mention these bands anywhere a metal fan can see them and they'll unleash a wave of anger and hatred so intense that you'd be forgiven for wondering what the band did to them to justify so much anger for them. There are several reasons for this: selling out (although the use of the term has now become a bit of a cliche, as it seems to be thrown at a band for basically doing anything the person in question using the word doesn't like that the band has done, even if what they've done, ironically enough, would actually make them LESS present in the mainstream), becoming popular (often in connection to the previous reason, although some bands have gotten hatred for becoming popular despite actually doing nothing that should make them popular), getting a guest appearance from someone in the mainstream to appear on your stuff (which seems a bit dumb in some cases, especially when you consider that "mainstream" among some metal fans can literally mean "can be found if you search their name on the internet"), changing their sound (which can be a bit of a daft thing to hate an artist for, when you really think about it: do you like the same stuff you were listening to when you were a kid? Probably not, so why should an artist make the same type of music they made at the start of their career, especially if they don't like that music any more?) or being part of a genre that metalheads hate (which is dumb, because...if you've read this blog before now, do you REALLY need me to give you the answer to that question?). While not liking a change in sound is a fair enough reason to dislike a band due to personal tastes being different for everyone (although it should be done tactfully: not liking the artist's stuff after the change in sound is fine if you just say that and let the artist be, but demanding the artist change their sound back or immediately hating everything the band has done just because you don't like their sound on one album is not), the rest can generally be chalked up to metalheads being the kind of group of people who claim that they are accepting individuals, but cannot stand something which isn't what they like. I know, the irony boggles the mind...
Bon Jovi's issues probably come because they technically manage to overlap with all five categories: they changed their sound (and to a fairly popular one) on 1992's Keep The Faith, they were (and still are, to an extent) considered one of the biggest bands connected to glam metal there is, they had a guest appearance from Jennifer Nettles on their song "Who Says You Can't Go Home" (on their 2005 album Have A Nice Day) and...well, most metalheads don't consider glam to be metal, but merely a sort of hard rock. Needless to say, you'll be lucky to find a metalhead who is willing to say anything about Bon Jovi that doesn't insult them at least once.
...Hey, don't look at me, I've said multiple times that I don't consider myself a metalhead so much as a metal fan!
*Sigh*
OK...While I do not consider Bon Jovi to be a flawless band by any measure (their stuff post-Keep The Faith generally gets a response of "meh" from me), I would say that their first four records are at least worth hearing if you're interested in glam metal, as they're very solid (...well, at least, their debut, Slippery When Wet and New Jersey are, not listened to 7800° Fahrenheit a lot). It's after Keep The Faith where the band lose me a bit, but that's not to say I don't have some songs from then onwards which I really enjoy. The problem is that, for the most part, the highlights feel like the most memorable of a bunch of songs that are merely OK. Some exceptions do stand out, like "It's My Life", "You Had Me From Hello", "Who Said You Can't Go Home" (I'm more fond of the version without Jennifer Nettles, but both are enjoyable), "Last Man Standing", "Summertime" and "We Weren't Born To Follow", but, for the most part, they simply don't write strong enough material for me to want to return to their albums a lot post-Keep The Faith. That said, 2009's The Circle was about the closest the band had come to releasing an album that I'd say is worth picking up since New Jersey, so I couldn't help hoping this album would be a further step in the right direction.
To an extent, I think I was somewhat right to hope for that, as What About Now has the most songs that I enjoy listening to on a Bon Jovi album post-Keep The Faith. HOWEVER, I wouldn't say it's an especially good album on its own merits at the same time. Most of the songs I like still have some noticeable flaws which drag them down, and I still feel that this isn't an album that's really worth checking out unless you're already a Bon Jovi fan.
First of all, let's look at the cover art. I'm not really fond of it, to be honest: the combination of brown, yellow, white and blue feels a bit like it's been haphazardly applied without too much thought about how it will look. It just seems to blend together into a bit of a mess, which, admittedly, doesn't help when the artwork does resemble of collage of drawings messily hashed together in an attempt to cover the fact that the artist hasn't really thought about how it's actually going to look.
The thing that makes this worse is when you look at the artwork for the single release of "Because We Can". Sure, it's not exactly the most imaginative artwork, but I honestly think this would have been better to have been the main artwork for the album and not for the single, as this just feels more like a complete piece of artwork.
Anyway, now that's out of the way, let's move to the music on the album.
One of the first things you'll notice upon hearing this album is that the band have gone for a sound that I think can be best summed up as country rock meets arena rock meets adult alternative. Most people will look at that and go "Dear God, no!", but I would say that, on paper, there's nothing really wrong with that combination of genres if handled well. However, while the band DO get the sound right a few times on the record, the feeling I get is that the band weren't too sure with what they wanted to do on this album (I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that they weren't forced to do it for financial reasons), as they frequently seem like they're chasing after the sound they should be going for and the occasions when they get what they were going for feel like freak accidents compared to the times when they try so hard to push in one of those directions that the rest of what they're going for seems to be an afterthought rather than a key part of the sound the band want to go for. One of the songs which DOES nail the sound is the first single, "Because We Can", which, distressingly, is one of the best songs on the album. Although it's lacking a real hook to enable the song to propel itself beyond being merely good, it's a solid song that is worth a listen. I'd say that the title track and "What's Left Of Me" are in the same boat, although I think the lyrics could have done with a bit of work on both of them.
It's when the band don't nail the sound they're going for that things start descending to being merely OK, although there are definitely a few gems here that are worth a listen. Both of the two acoustic songs, "Amen" and "The Fighter", are surprisingly enjoyable, although the latter is MAYBE trying a bit too hard to take influence from Simon & Garfunkel with the way the song is written and they betray their influence with the lyric "I am the fighter/though not a boxer by trade". Subtlety, thy name is Bon Jovi...
After these five tracks, though...about the only track I'd really say might be worth a listen is "Thick As Thieves", and I wouldn't exactly say that's a highlight so much as it's a song that might not warrant the use of the skip button. The rest of the album, unfortunately, feels rather dull. They have some interesting moments, but I wouldn't say any of them are going to end up on most people's playlists of favourite Bon Jovi songs.
On a performance level, the only person I feel is a weak link on this album is Jon. Before you flame me to death for saying that, compare how his voice sounds on The Circle compared with this album. On The Circle...I'm not going to say there isn't any auto tune on The Circle, as I might be very wrong there, but I don't recall hearing any moments where I was noticing the use of auto tune for definite on there. Here, though...good lord, Jon's relying on it so much on this album that it's almost impossible not to notice it! "I'm With You" is especially noticeable with the use of it, as Jon almost sounds like a machine at points on the song. Otherwise, everyone does a good job on the album. It's a shame that Jon's having to use the auto tune so much on this album, though...maybe it would be best for Bon Jovi to give up if Jon's voice needs to rely on auto tune this much to deliver the material on record?
...OK, you can flame me for that one, I probably deserve it!
Moving to the production, I have to say that the band's production is pretty good, although I personally think the bass could have done with a bit more volume and the mastering is still a bit louder than it should really be.
So, final thoughts? While the genres being mixed together by the band is interesting on paper, the band mostly fail to execute it properly, resulting in a generally mediocre collection of songs and a few that are at least fairly enjoyable. Jon's reliance on the auto tune on this album is a bit excessive, to the extent that I have to wonder whether it might be better for the band to quietly disband due to Jon's voice not being up to the standards it should be any more. Throw in a cover art that is too crowded and with a poor choice of colours on it that blend together to make it all a mess and it's really hard to recommend this album to anyone who isn't already a big Bon Jovi fan, and even they might be advised to give this one a miss, as there's a lot of other albums out there which are better than this.
Final Rating: 4 Out Of 10
A generally mediocre album brought down further by an over-reliance on auto tune and with one of the worst bits of cover art that I've seen from a 2013 album (only really beaten by Helloween's Straight Out Of Hell), this is not worth picking up unless you can cope with the auto tune and how scattered the band's songwriting is on this album. Die hard Bon Jovi fans almost certainly already have this, but, if you haven't got the album, you'll not be missing much if you don't pick this up. If you've never liked Bon Jovi, this will not change your mind at all, so don't bother.
Personal Favourite Songs: "Because We Can", "What's Left Of Me"
Bon Jovi's issues probably come because they technically manage to overlap with all five categories: they changed their sound (and to a fairly popular one) on 1992's Keep The Faith, they were (and still are, to an extent) considered one of the biggest bands connected to glam metal there is, they had a guest appearance from Jennifer Nettles on their song "Who Says You Can't Go Home" (on their 2005 album Have A Nice Day) and...well, most metalheads don't consider glam to be metal, but merely a sort of hard rock. Needless to say, you'll be lucky to find a metalhead who is willing to say anything about Bon Jovi that doesn't insult them at least once.
...Hey, don't look at me, I've said multiple times that I don't consider myself a metalhead so much as a metal fan!
*Sigh*
OK...While I do not consider Bon Jovi to be a flawless band by any measure (their stuff post-Keep The Faith generally gets a response of "meh" from me), I would say that their first four records are at least worth hearing if you're interested in glam metal, as they're very solid (...well, at least, their debut, Slippery When Wet and New Jersey are, not listened to 7800° Fahrenheit a lot). It's after Keep The Faith where the band lose me a bit, but that's not to say I don't have some songs from then onwards which I really enjoy. The problem is that, for the most part, the highlights feel like the most memorable of a bunch of songs that are merely OK. Some exceptions do stand out, like "It's My Life", "You Had Me From Hello", "Who Said You Can't Go Home" (I'm more fond of the version without Jennifer Nettles, but both are enjoyable), "Last Man Standing", "Summertime" and "We Weren't Born To Follow", but, for the most part, they simply don't write strong enough material for me to want to return to their albums a lot post-Keep The Faith. That said, 2009's The Circle was about the closest the band had come to releasing an album that I'd say is worth picking up since New Jersey, so I couldn't help hoping this album would be a further step in the right direction.
To an extent, I think I was somewhat right to hope for that, as What About Now has the most songs that I enjoy listening to on a Bon Jovi album post-Keep The Faith. HOWEVER, I wouldn't say it's an especially good album on its own merits at the same time. Most of the songs I like still have some noticeable flaws which drag them down, and I still feel that this isn't an album that's really worth checking out unless you're already a Bon Jovi fan.
First of all, let's look at the cover art. I'm not really fond of it, to be honest: the combination of brown, yellow, white and blue feels a bit like it's been haphazardly applied without too much thought about how it will look. It just seems to blend together into a bit of a mess, which, admittedly, doesn't help when the artwork does resemble of collage of drawings messily hashed together in an attempt to cover the fact that the artist hasn't really thought about how it's actually going to look.
The thing that makes this worse is when you look at the artwork for the single release of "Because We Can". Sure, it's not exactly the most imaginative artwork, but I honestly think this would have been better to have been the main artwork for the album and not for the single, as this just feels more like a complete piece of artwork.
Anyway, now that's out of the way, let's move to the music on the album.
One of the first things you'll notice upon hearing this album is that the band have gone for a sound that I think can be best summed up as country rock meets arena rock meets adult alternative. Most people will look at that and go "Dear God, no!", but I would say that, on paper, there's nothing really wrong with that combination of genres if handled well. However, while the band DO get the sound right a few times on the record, the feeling I get is that the band weren't too sure with what they wanted to do on this album (I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that they weren't forced to do it for financial reasons), as they frequently seem like they're chasing after the sound they should be going for and the occasions when they get what they were going for feel like freak accidents compared to the times when they try so hard to push in one of those directions that the rest of what they're going for seems to be an afterthought rather than a key part of the sound the band want to go for. One of the songs which DOES nail the sound is the first single, "Because We Can", which, distressingly, is one of the best songs on the album. Although it's lacking a real hook to enable the song to propel itself beyond being merely good, it's a solid song that is worth a listen. I'd say that the title track and "What's Left Of Me" are in the same boat, although I think the lyrics could have done with a bit of work on both of them.
It's when the band don't nail the sound they're going for that things start descending to being merely OK, although there are definitely a few gems here that are worth a listen. Both of the two acoustic songs, "Amen" and "The Fighter", are surprisingly enjoyable, although the latter is MAYBE trying a bit too hard to take influence from Simon & Garfunkel with the way the song is written and they betray their influence with the lyric "I am the fighter/though not a boxer by trade". Subtlety, thy name is Bon Jovi...
After these five tracks, though...about the only track I'd really say might be worth a listen is "Thick As Thieves", and I wouldn't exactly say that's a highlight so much as it's a song that might not warrant the use of the skip button. The rest of the album, unfortunately, feels rather dull. They have some interesting moments, but I wouldn't say any of them are going to end up on most people's playlists of favourite Bon Jovi songs.
On a performance level, the only person I feel is a weak link on this album is Jon. Before you flame me to death for saying that, compare how his voice sounds on The Circle compared with this album. On The Circle...I'm not going to say there isn't any auto tune on The Circle, as I might be very wrong there, but I don't recall hearing any moments where I was noticing the use of auto tune for definite on there. Here, though...good lord, Jon's relying on it so much on this album that it's almost impossible not to notice it! "I'm With You" is especially noticeable with the use of it, as Jon almost sounds like a machine at points on the song. Otherwise, everyone does a good job on the album. It's a shame that Jon's having to use the auto tune so much on this album, though...maybe it would be best for Bon Jovi to give up if Jon's voice needs to rely on auto tune this much to deliver the material on record?
...OK, you can flame me for that one, I probably deserve it!
Moving to the production, I have to say that the band's production is pretty good, although I personally think the bass could have done with a bit more volume and the mastering is still a bit louder than it should really be.
So, final thoughts? While the genres being mixed together by the band is interesting on paper, the band mostly fail to execute it properly, resulting in a generally mediocre collection of songs and a few that are at least fairly enjoyable. Jon's reliance on the auto tune on this album is a bit excessive, to the extent that I have to wonder whether it might be better for the band to quietly disband due to Jon's voice not being up to the standards it should be any more. Throw in a cover art that is too crowded and with a poor choice of colours on it that blend together to make it all a mess and it's really hard to recommend this album to anyone who isn't already a big Bon Jovi fan, and even they might be advised to give this one a miss, as there's a lot of other albums out there which are better than this.
Final Rating: 4 Out Of 10
A generally mediocre album brought down further by an over-reliance on auto tune and with one of the worst bits of cover art that I've seen from a 2013 album (only really beaten by Helloween's Straight Out Of Hell), this is not worth picking up unless you can cope with the auto tune and how scattered the band's songwriting is on this album. Die hard Bon Jovi fans almost certainly already have this, but, if you haven't got the album, you'll not be missing much if you don't pick this up. If you've never liked Bon Jovi, this will not change your mind at all, so don't bother.
Personal Favourite Songs: "Because We Can", "What's Left Of Me"
Sunday, 11 May 2014
Stryper "No More Hell To Pay" Review
So, here's a joke for you: Christian glam metal.
Thank you very much, I'm here til Sunday!
*Puts serious hat on*
When you think of glam metal, the first things that come to mind are sex, drugs, big hair, ridiculous costumes and mainstream metal. So, when you take away the first two and instead replace it with a Christian message (and not necessarily a subtle one), it's understandable that a lot of people will react poorly. Heck, Christian rock itself has a pretty poor reputation among serious rock fans, so imagine what glam metal fans must think when a band that is openly part of the religion that condemned the whole genre gets brought up.
And then you get the metal fans who don't like glam metal and think it's funny to just say "LOL, glam sucks, faggots"...(that is not an actual comment I've seen connected to glam metal, but is a slightly exaggerated example of what you can find on the internet among some of the less tolerant metal fans)
Yeah...you can imagine that Stryper's reputation among most metal fans is probably on the same level as most nu-metal bands. I mean, they're playing glam metal and they're Christians, so surely they must suck twice as hard, right?
If you do indeed subscribe to that logic, then get the fuck off of my blog! I've made my stance on Christian metal pretty clear already in one of my early blog posts (if you haven't read it, then click here) and the fact that I've never condemned the genre should have tipped you off to the fact that I don't dislike the genre.
...Anyone still reading this?
OK. Now, I'll admit, I'm not hugely familiar with Stryper's discography. I've heard To Hell With The Devil, which was pretty good (and "The Way" is fucking awesome, I don't care what anyone else says about it!), but, for various reasons, I've never bothered to check out their other albums before this one. The thing about Stryper is that, apparently, they're not especially consistent when it comes to their other albums. Sure, To Hell With The Devil was very good, but a lot of reports that I've read (once you ignore those who are flaming the band) indicate that it's probably their best album by a bit, which is quite worrying when you consider that I don't consider To Hell With The Devil to be a flawless album. However, reports for this album indicate that it's probably their best work since then, with some even going so far as to call it their best album period.
Is it actually a good album, though? Well, let's find out together! Open thy prayer book to hymn 616 and prepare to sing a sing-along song!
...Congratulations to anyone who got that last reference without needing to use the internet!
Anyway, Stryper originally formed in 1975 under the name Roxx Regime, with Michael Sweet on lead vocals and guitar, Robert Sweet on drums and bassist Eric Johnson on bass. There were several people who were considered to join the band on second guitar, including Doug Aldrich (who you probably know for recently leaving Whitesnake) and C.C. DeVille (who you probably know for being part of Poison), but the band ultimately went with Oz Fox. The band would later change their name to Stryper after bassist Tim Gaines joined the band (I've no idea whether Eric Johnson left Stryper of his own accord, was fired by the other guys or left by mutual agreement) and the record label told the band to change their name. They went for their name after a passage in Isaiah 53:5 (which reads "By His stripes we are healed", if you're curious) and released their debut EP, The Yellow and Black Attack, in July 1984 (about a week before Metallica released Ride The Lightning, if my research is correct) on a pressing of fewer than 200,000 copies. They then went on tour and opened for Ratt and Bon Jovi (...do you really need me to come up with a remark for that?) before releasing their debut album, Soldiers Under Command, in May 1985. The band's label opted to re-release their debut EP to capitalise on the band's unexpected popularity (their debut sold enough to achieve a gold record) with two bonus tracks and new artwork in August 1986 and, in October 1986, the band's second album To Hell With The Devil, came out. It became the first Christian metal album to achieve a platinum record and was the best selling album of this sort until 2001, when P.O.D. released their album Satellite. Although Gaines did not actually record bass on the album (that would be Brad Cobb), this is because he left the band before the album was recorded and his replacement (Matt Hurich, formerly of Leatherwolf) proved to only stay in the band for a month. Gaines returned to the band before touring for the album begun. He did this again for the band's third album, In God We Trust, which still got a gold record, but got a lukewarm reaction from critics. They responded to this by drastically changing their sound away from their glam metal roots (going for a more classic metal sound) and their outfits on 1990's Against The Law. This proved controversial, to say the least. The band went on tour for this album, but tragedy struck in February 1992, when Michael Sweet announced he was departing the band. The band attempted to carry on without him, but were forced to conclude that he was irreplaceable and, by 1993, the band had broken up. Michael Sweet started his solo career, Oz Fox and Tim Gaines formed the band SinDizzy and Robert Sweet went on to drum for other bands. And the world heard nothing more from Stryper...
...Until 1999, when SinDizzy were booked to play a rock festival in Puerto Rico and, as part of an encore, Michael Sweet came on stage to sing several Stryper songs. This started the roots for a reunion and, in 2000, the band's original line up came together on stage to perform at the first "Stryper Expo" and at a concert in Costa Rica. The band did a second "Stryper Expo" in 2001, but no new music occurred until the band were asked to provide two new tracks for a greatest hits record being released by Hollywood Records. This was released in March 2003 and the band did a tour in support of the album, with the last show of the tour being recorded and released as a live album and DVD. Sadly, this would prove to be the last show Tim Gaines would play with the band until 2009, as he and the band parted ways in 2004 and he was replaced by Tracy Ferrie, who had previously been in Michael Sweet's solo band. The band returned into the studio to record their reunion album, Reborn, which was released in August 2005, had a more modern sound than what the band had done the first time around and was received well by the band's fans and critics. Michael Sweet joined Boston in 2007 and was even going to appear on 2013's Life, Love & Hope, as I mentioned in my review of it which you can read here. This meant that Stryper's next album, Murder By Pride, didn't get released until July 2009. It was preceded by a cover of "Piece Of Mind" by Boston, which is about the closest we're going to ever come to hearing Michael Sweet perform a Boston song in a studio setting. The band's next release was a covers album in 2011, titled The Covering. 2013 proved to be a busy year for Stryper, as they released a self-covers (probably better called a re-recording, but I prefer to say "self-covers" for some reason) album titled Second Coming in May and, in November, they returned with No More Hell To Pay.
First of all, here's the cover art. If you are a Stryper fan, you will no doubt spot that this is referencing the artwork for To Hell With The Devil, but I'd still say it's pretty cool!
Anyway, onto the album! The thing that should stand out to you upon hearing the album is that Michael Sweet has a bloody good singing voice! He always did, but, comparing his voice to that on To Hell With The Devil, it seems that age hasn't really affected his voice much. He doesn't have quite as high a normal singing voice, but he otherwise does a rather impressive job for a guy who probably would have been 49 when he'd recorded the album! This isn't intended to make the rest of the band sound like they didn't contribute anything to the album, as their performances are definitely solid but Michael Sweet, frankly, deserves a hell of a lot better than he's got from the crowd who think anything connected to glam metal is automatically terrible. The second thing that should strike you is that this is a bit too heavy to really qualify as a glam metal album. If anything, I'd say the band lean more towards classic heavy metal on this album, which should mean that those of you who ignored this album out of fear of the dreaded "G" word should feel reassured that this doesn't sound like glam metal at all! The third thing that should hit you upon first listen, sadly, is a negative: the album is VERY loudly mastered, which doesn't make this an album that you want to relisten to a lot. Shame, as the actual material on the album is pretty good, to say the least!
The album has a surprisingly large amount of variety, despite the band not including any instruments that are out of the norm for metal. You have very slow, powerful tracks like the title track and "Revelation" mixed in with some rather faster material like "Legacy", "Saved By Love" and "Sympathy", a solidly done cover of "Jesus Is Just Alright" and a ballad in the form of "The One". This makes the album feel like a solid listening experience in its own right: you don't feel like you're just being fed the same song again and again (see most modern thrash albums), you instead get a nice selection of songs that should fill you up if taken together, but which still present you with some favourites that you'll probably be wanting to return to frequently. The fact that every song is worth hearing is a commendable achievement, too! I've listened to this album multiple times and, every time I do, I find myself loving every track on it! Indeed, if the album didn't have the mastering complaint I brought up earlier, I'd be hard pressed to have any major complaints against this album, and that's saying a lot from a picky sod like me!
Of course, I do have two minor complaints with the album, and the first is probably going to be the one that makes the least sense to object to, as it's part of what makes them who they are, but which I think is still fair to raise: the band occasionally forget that the people who listen to their music aren't all going to be Christians and, as such, some of their songs will be a bit much for you if you aren't a Christian, although I wouldn't say they overdo it so much that most sensible people would have a major issue with it (although this does make them an easy target for the militant athetists and those who object to religion in any form). I'd probably have said that the band could have done better by dialling this habit back a little bit, as it would make them a bit easier to enjoy for non-Christians who might have an issue with it. However, as I've pointed out, this is part of what makes Stryper who they are, so this is probably an unfair nitpick. I'll stress that they ARE more subtle about it than they were, though: ignoring "Jesus Is Just Alright" (which is a cover, so you can't really blame them for the lyrics of that one if you have an issue with them), they don't let their faith get so blatant in their lyrics that it will really annoy anyone, although "Water Into Wine" might be pushing it a tiny bit!
The other complaint I have is that, by dialling up the heavy metal part of their sound, glam metal fans might find this a tougher album to enjoy, as it's not as immediately catchy as, say, "Calling On You" and "The Way". However, I'd say this is a small issue overall, since most Stryper fans are likely to not just be glam metal fans and will be at least vaguely familiar with heavy metal, so this is more directed to those people who think the band are going to sound the same as they did in the 80's. If that is you, then I'm afraid you're going to be in for a disappointment, as the band don't sound a lot like they did in the 80's...although it's still a fine album, so I highly recommend you check it out!
I've already mentioned the loud mastering issue, but I will also say that the bass could have done with a louder presence in the mix. Even with my bass amplifying headphones, I found the bass a bit on the quiet side. Now, to be fair, it doesn't do anything especially special, but I think a louder presence might have been a better idea, as the album seems a bit too guitar heavy with the mix to me. So, tiny bit less guitar, tiny bit more bass!
So, final thoughts? Well, there's a reason this was one of my favourite albums of 2013 and it's not because this album leaves me wanting more from the band! Seriously, if this had been released by an up and coming band, I'd have said they were a band to watch out for. Coming from a band who most people would have written off as incapable of living up to their classics due to their age and their discography being somewhat hit and miss, that's a hell of a lot more impressive. This isn't a perfect album, but, when the only major issue I can come up with is the mastering (which is, admittedly, a valid issue) and the only minor ones I can come up with are how well this album would appeal to glam fans and the fact that they occasionally overdo their message enough that it might annoy non-Christians (both of which are matters of personal preference), that points towards this being a damn good album, if not an excellent one! Consider this a highly recommended album, and one which you should look towards picking up if you're into heavy metal music! If you're not...while I wouldn't say "Get this!", I'd still say it's worth a look at if you want to avoid going for the obvious choices of starting point with heavy metal music like, say, Painkiller by Judas Priest, Master Of Puppets by Metallica or The Number Of The Beast by Iron Maiden and want to jump in at the (relative) deep end from the start.
Final Rating: 9 Out Of 10
An excellent album that only really lets itself down due to the mastering. If you ever wrote off Stryper just for being Christian glam metal, this album should have you changing your tune pretty quickly! If you are a Stryper fan and don't have this...WHY? Go remedy that as soon as you can, you won't be disappointed! If you are a glam metal fan, this might lean a bit too much towards heavy metal for your taste, but I still would recommend picking it up, as it's still an amazing listen!
Personal Favourite Tracks: all of them are great, but I'd personally recommend checking out "Jesus Is Just Alright", "Sticks & Stones" and "Sympathy"
Thank you very much, I'm here til Sunday!
*Puts serious hat on*
When you think of glam metal, the first things that come to mind are sex, drugs, big hair, ridiculous costumes and mainstream metal. So, when you take away the first two and instead replace it with a Christian message (and not necessarily a subtle one), it's understandable that a lot of people will react poorly. Heck, Christian rock itself has a pretty poor reputation among serious rock fans, so imagine what glam metal fans must think when a band that is openly part of the religion that condemned the whole genre gets brought up.
And then you get the metal fans who don't like glam metal and think it's funny to just say "LOL, glam sucks, faggots"...(that is not an actual comment I've seen connected to glam metal, but is a slightly exaggerated example of what you can find on the internet among some of the less tolerant metal fans)
Yeah...you can imagine that Stryper's reputation among most metal fans is probably on the same level as most nu-metal bands. I mean, they're playing glam metal and they're Christians, so surely they must suck twice as hard, right?
If you do indeed subscribe to that logic, then get the fuck off of my blog! I've made my stance on Christian metal pretty clear already in one of my early blog posts (if you haven't read it, then click here) and the fact that I've never condemned the genre should have tipped you off to the fact that I don't dislike the genre.
...Anyone still reading this?
OK. Now, I'll admit, I'm not hugely familiar with Stryper's discography. I've heard To Hell With The Devil, which was pretty good (and "The Way" is fucking awesome, I don't care what anyone else says about it!), but, for various reasons, I've never bothered to check out their other albums before this one. The thing about Stryper is that, apparently, they're not especially consistent when it comes to their other albums. Sure, To Hell With The Devil was very good, but a lot of reports that I've read (once you ignore those who are flaming the band) indicate that it's probably their best album by a bit, which is quite worrying when you consider that I don't consider To Hell With The Devil to be a flawless album. However, reports for this album indicate that it's probably their best work since then, with some even going so far as to call it their best album period.
Is it actually a good album, though? Well, let's find out together! Open thy prayer book to hymn 616 and prepare to sing a sing-along song!
...Congratulations to anyone who got that last reference without needing to use the internet!
Anyway, Stryper originally formed in 1975 under the name Roxx Regime, with Michael Sweet on lead vocals and guitar, Robert Sweet on drums and bassist Eric Johnson on bass. There were several people who were considered to join the band on second guitar, including Doug Aldrich (who you probably know for recently leaving Whitesnake) and C.C. DeVille (who you probably know for being part of Poison), but the band ultimately went with Oz Fox. The band would later change their name to Stryper after bassist Tim Gaines joined the band (I've no idea whether Eric Johnson left Stryper of his own accord, was fired by the other guys or left by mutual agreement) and the record label told the band to change their name. They went for their name after a passage in Isaiah 53:5 (which reads "By His stripes we are healed", if you're curious) and released their debut EP, The Yellow and Black Attack, in July 1984 (about a week before Metallica released Ride The Lightning, if my research is correct) on a pressing of fewer than 200,000 copies. They then went on tour and opened for Ratt and Bon Jovi (...do you really need me to come up with a remark for that?) before releasing their debut album, Soldiers Under Command, in May 1985. The band's label opted to re-release their debut EP to capitalise on the band's unexpected popularity (their debut sold enough to achieve a gold record) with two bonus tracks and new artwork in August 1986 and, in October 1986, the band's second album To Hell With The Devil, came out. It became the first Christian metal album to achieve a platinum record and was the best selling album of this sort until 2001, when P.O.D. released their album Satellite. Although Gaines did not actually record bass on the album (that would be Brad Cobb), this is because he left the band before the album was recorded and his replacement (Matt Hurich, formerly of Leatherwolf) proved to only stay in the band for a month. Gaines returned to the band before touring for the album begun. He did this again for the band's third album, In God We Trust, which still got a gold record, but got a lukewarm reaction from critics. They responded to this by drastically changing their sound away from their glam metal roots (going for a more classic metal sound) and their outfits on 1990's Against The Law. This proved controversial, to say the least. The band went on tour for this album, but tragedy struck in February 1992, when Michael Sweet announced he was departing the band. The band attempted to carry on without him, but were forced to conclude that he was irreplaceable and, by 1993, the band had broken up. Michael Sweet started his solo career, Oz Fox and Tim Gaines formed the band SinDizzy and Robert Sweet went on to drum for other bands. And the world heard nothing more from Stryper...
...Until 1999, when SinDizzy were booked to play a rock festival in Puerto Rico and, as part of an encore, Michael Sweet came on stage to sing several Stryper songs. This started the roots for a reunion and, in 2000, the band's original line up came together on stage to perform at the first "Stryper Expo" and at a concert in Costa Rica. The band did a second "Stryper Expo" in 2001, but no new music occurred until the band were asked to provide two new tracks for a greatest hits record being released by Hollywood Records. This was released in March 2003 and the band did a tour in support of the album, with the last show of the tour being recorded and released as a live album and DVD. Sadly, this would prove to be the last show Tim Gaines would play with the band until 2009, as he and the band parted ways in 2004 and he was replaced by Tracy Ferrie, who had previously been in Michael Sweet's solo band. The band returned into the studio to record their reunion album, Reborn, which was released in August 2005, had a more modern sound than what the band had done the first time around and was received well by the band's fans and critics. Michael Sweet joined Boston in 2007 and was even going to appear on 2013's Life, Love & Hope, as I mentioned in my review of it which you can read here. This meant that Stryper's next album, Murder By Pride, didn't get released until July 2009. It was preceded by a cover of "Piece Of Mind" by Boston, which is about the closest we're going to ever come to hearing Michael Sweet perform a Boston song in a studio setting. The band's next release was a covers album in 2011, titled The Covering. 2013 proved to be a busy year for Stryper, as they released a self-covers (probably better called a re-recording, but I prefer to say "self-covers" for some reason) album titled Second Coming in May and, in November, they returned with No More Hell To Pay.
First of all, here's the cover art. If you are a Stryper fan, you will no doubt spot that this is referencing the artwork for To Hell With The Devil, but I'd still say it's pretty cool!
Anyway, onto the album! The thing that should stand out to you upon hearing the album is that Michael Sweet has a bloody good singing voice! He always did, but, comparing his voice to that on To Hell With The Devil, it seems that age hasn't really affected his voice much. He doesn't have quite as high a normal singing voice, but he otherwise does a rather impressive job for a guy who probably would have been 49 when he'd recorded the album! This isn't intended to make the rest of the band sound like they didn't contribute anything to the album, as their performances are definitely solid but Michael Sweet, frankly, deserves a hell of a lot better than he's got from the crowd who think anything connected to glam metal is automatically terrible. The second thing that should strike you is that this is a bit too heavy to really qualify as a glam metal album. If anything, I'd say the band lean more towards classic heavy metal on this album, which should mean that those of you who ignored this album out of fear of the dreaded "G" word should feel reassured that this doesn't sound like glam metal at all! The third thing that should hit you upon first listen, sadly, is a negative: the album is VERY loudly mastered, which doesn't make this an album that you want to relisten to a lot. Shame, as the actual material on the album is pretty good, to say the least!
The album has a surprisingly large amount of variety, despite the band not including any instruments that are out of the norm for metal. You have very slow, powerful tracks like the title track and "Revelation" mixed in with some rather faster material like "Legacy", "Saved By Love" and "Sympathy", a solidly done cover of "Jesus Is Just Alright" and a ballad in the form of "The One". This makes the album feel like a solid listening experience in its own right: you don't feel like you're just being fed the same song again and again (see most modern thrash albums), you instead get a nice selection of songs that should fill you up if taken together, but which still present you with some favourites that you'll probably be wanting to return to frequently. The fact that every song is worth hearing is a commendable achievement, too! I've listened to this album multiple times and, every time I do, I find myself loving every track on it! Indeed, if the album didn't have the mastering complaint I brought up earlier, I'd be hard pressed to have any major complaints against this album, and that's saying a lot from a picky sod like me!
Of course, I do have two minor complaints with the album, and the first is probably going to be the one that makes the least sense to object to, as it's part of what makes them who they are, but which I think is still fair to raise: the band occasionally forget that the people who listen to their music aren't all going to be Christians and, as such, some of their songs will be a bit much for you if you aren't a Christian, although I wouldn't say they overdo it so much that most sensible people would have a major issue with it (although this does make them an easy target for the militant athetists and those who object to religion in any form). I'd probably have said that the band could have done better by dialling this habit back a little bit, as it would make them a bit easier to enjoy for non-Christians who might have an issue with it. However, as I've pointed out, this is part of what makes Stryper who they are, so this is probably an unfair nitpick. I'll stress that they ARE more subtle about it than they were, though: ignoring "Jesus Is Just Alright" (which is a cover, so you can't really blame them for the lyrics of that one if you have an issue with them), they don't let their faith get so blatant in their lyrics that it will really annoy anyone, although "Water Into Wine" might be pushing it a tiny bit!
The other complaint I have is that, by dialling up the heavy metal part of their sound, glam metal fans might find this a tougher album to enjoy, as it's not as immediately catchy as, say, "Calling On You" and "The Way". However, I'd say this is a small issue overall, since most Stryper fans are likely to not just be glam metal fans and will be at least vaguely familiar with heavy metal, so this is more directed to those people who think the band are going to sound the same as they did in the 80's. If that is you, then I'm afraid you're going to be in for a disappointment, as the band don't sound a lot like they did in the 80's...although it's still a fine album, so I highly recommend you check it out!
I've already mentioned the loud mastering issue, but I will also say that the bass could have done with a louder presence in the mix. Even with my bass amplifying headphones, I found the bass a bit on the quiet side. Now, to be fair, it doesn't do anything especially special, but I think a louder presence might have been a better idea, as the album seems a bit too guitar heavy with the mix to me. So, tiny bit less guitar, tiny bit more bass!
So, final thoughts? Well, there's a reason this was one of my favourite albums of 2013 and it's not because this album leaves me wanting more from the band! Seriously, if this had been released by an up and coming band, I'd have said they were a band to watch out for. Coming from a band who most people would have written off as incapable of living up to their classics due to their age and their discography being somewhat hit and miss, that's a hell of a lot more impressive. This isn't a perfect album, but, when the only major issue I can come up with is the mastering (which is, admittedly, a valid issue) and the only minor ones I can come up with are how well this album would appeal to glam fans and the fact that they occasionally overdo their message enough that it might annoy non-Christians (both of which are matters of personal preference), that points towards this being a damn good album, if not an excellent one! Consider this a highly recommended album, and one which you should look towards picking up if you're into heavy metal music! If you're not...while I wouldn't say "Get this!", I'd still say it's worth a look at if you want to avoid going for the obvious choices of starting point with heavy metal music like, say, Painkiller by Judas Priest, Master Of Puppets by Metallica or The Number Of The Beast by Iron Maiden and want to jump in at the (relative) deep end from the start.
Final Rating: 9 Out Of 10
An excellent album that only really lets itself down due to the mastering. If you ever wrote off Stryper just for being Christian glam metal, this album should have you changing your tune pretty quickly! If you are a Stryper fan and don't have this...WHY? Go remedy that as soon as you can, you won't be disappointed! If you are a glam metal fan, this might lean a bit too much towards heavy metal for your taste, but I still would recommend picking it up, as it's still an amazing listen!
Personal Favourite Tracks: all of them are great, but I'd personally recommend checking out "Jesus Is Just Alright", "Sticks & Stones" and "Sympathy"
Saturday, 10 May 2014
The Darkness "Hot Cakes" Review
Well, here we stand. It's The Darkness' reunion album, Hot Cakes (which is a reference to the saying "Selling like hot cakes", for the benefit of international readers who don't get why I am quietly rolling my eyes at having to type that album title). Stone Gods were working on a second album (which apparently was finished, but I don't know whether it's ever going to see the light of day), but they and Hot Leg went on hiatus in December 2010, which lead to rumours of a reunion of The Darkness. This was confirmed in March 2011 (and with the original line up, too) and the band got back to touring, along with working on their third album. This was released in August 2012, after releasing two (technically three, but "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us" was released in February 2012, so I think it's reasonable to assume that it wasn't a proper single, especially considering it wouldn't have charted anyway) singles from the album, "Every Inch Of You" and "Everybody Have A Good Time" (...I would make a Poison reference, but I've already used the one that I wanted to, so I'm not going to bother!).
To say it sold fairly well would be pretty accurate: it appeared on quite a few album charts in several countries (specifically, it appeared on the charts in Australia, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and The US...and, in some places, on more than one chart!) and got positive reviews.
But is this the album we deserved to get, knowing all that we do now involving Stone Gods and Hot Leg? Well...I don't think so, to be honest. But does that mean it's a bad album? Well, let's see.
First of all, let's take a look at the album cover. Erm...I'll admit, the women covered in what I'm assuming is intended to be some kind of syrup seems a tiny bit much, but it fits what the band are going for with the idea behind the cover art. In and of itself, it's maybe a bit much, but I can see what the band were going for, so I can't complain too much. Plus, considering the style of music the band play, it's actually not too far out of place for them. Ignoring that...I'd say it could have done with a better colour contrast, as there's a bit too much yellow and brown on the cover art.
The band's sound on this album seems to be in the vein of Permission To Land, although a few flashes of One Way Ticket do crop up. On paper, that should be a good thing: they've accepted that they overdid the Queen influence on One Way Ticket and gone back to what they did best when they first came around. However, I'd argue that this is actually a bit of a bad thing, as it shows a deliberate regression of the band's sound, which means we're basically back to the AC/DC as covered by Queen sound on that album on more than a bit of this album (see "Every Inch Of You").
HOWEVER, I will say that Dan Hawkins' time in Stone Gods has given him more confidence when song writing, as the band manage to nicely up the complexity with the songwriting while still keeping within the framework of their sound (a fine example of this is "Street Spirit (Fade Out)", although "She's Just A Girl, Eddie" could probably fit under this category as well). Although some of the lyrics are still rather poor, the lyrics seem to have generally taken a bit of a step up in quality on this album compared to The Darkness' first time around, which I'm personally going to attribute to Dan Hawkins due to better lyrics being a thing for Stone Gods and not for Hot Leg. Unfortunately, Dan Hawkins' extra confidence with songwriting has resulted in the band's songwriting taking a slight step down in terms of quality at the same time: there are a few songs that lack the hooks that you can find on Red Light Fever and occasionally has you getting faintly reminded of what happened on Silver Spoons & Broken Bones (only without the plagiarism and pointless sections that really dragged that album down for me). That said, it's not really enough a huge issue overall, since the really strong songs are going to be in your head all day anyway and the weaker songs don't really do anything really wrong per se. Also, the fact that some of the songs on the album are apparently old songs might mean this is me complaining about songs that weren't actually written for this album, so the more typical material might actually be some of the songs that the band didn't release for their debut album. I can't confirm which songs are the old ones, however, so I can't confirm how accurate this statement is.
The album's production is actually pretty fine. The bass is again still on the quiet side, but the mastering is fairly reasonable (although I do think it could have done with a tiny bit of turning down overall). Dan and Justin were co-producers on this album (they also produced it alongside Nick Brine, who co-produced Silver Spoons & Broken Bones alongside Dan), which is probably why this sounds like a combination of Silver Spoons & Broken Bones and Red Light Fever on a production level.
I know I'm skimming this review a bit compared to the other ones, but, really, most of what I've said can probably be seen in the last reviews I've done by The Darkness, Stone Gods and Hot Leg. You've got Justin Hawkins' high voice being its usual self (although he does sound a bit strained on this album at points...hopefully, this isn't a sign that his voice is going to give out in the next couple of years!), some solid bass playing by Frankie Poullain, you've got solid (if not especially complex) drumming from Ed Graham and Justin and Dan are a very good guitar duo together. The music's not especially complicated, but it's well performed. Really, there's not a lot left to say at this point.
So, final thoughts? It's a solid album that suffers from a few unmemorable songs and the regression of the band's sound doesn't exactly do them any favours, but everything else seems to have stepped up from One Way Ticket. Really, you probably know if you'll want to check this out or not just from what I've said about this album, especially if you have any familiarity with The Darkness at this point. I'd like to see the band be a bit more adventurous on their fourth album, but they've done a good enough job that I'm probably nitpicking at the end of the day.
Final Rating: 6 Out Of 10
While it suffers from having a few weak songs and the band's dedication to following their old sound does mean you can't help being a bit frustrated by the fact that the band don't seem to have progressed much musically, it's still a fairly solid album that's worth picking up if you've heard The Darkness' music before now and liked it. If you haven't and like the sound of it, you should give this a go. If you never liked The Darkness before now, don't bother with this, as you're not going to get anything to make you change your mind.
Personal Favourite Tracks: "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us", "She's Just A Girl, Eddie", "Street Spirit (Fade Out)"
To say it sold fairly well would be pretty accurate: it appeared on quite a few album charts in several countries (specifically, it appeared on the charts in Australia, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and The US...and, in some places, on more than one chart!) and got positive reviews.
But is this the album we deserved to get, knowing all that we do now involving Stone Gods and Hot Leg? Well...I don't think so, to be honest. But does that mean it's a bad album? Well, let's see.
First of all, let's take a look at the album cover. Erm...I'll admit, the women covered in what I'm assuming is intended to be some kind of syrup seems a tiny bit much, but it fits what the band are going for with the idea behind the cover art. In and of itself, it's maybe a bit much, but I can see what the band were going for, so I can't complain too much. Plus, considering the style of music the band play, it's actually not too far out of place for them. Ignoring that...I'd say it could have done with a better colour contrast, as there's a bit too much yellow and brown on the cover art.
The band's sound on this album seems to be in the vein of Permission To Land, although a few flashes of One Way Ticket do crop up. On paper, that should be a good thing: they've accepted that they overdid the Queen influence on One Way Ticket and gone back to what they did best when they first came around. However, I'd argue that this is actually a bit of a bad thing, as it shows a deliberate regression of the band's sound, which means we're basically back to the AC/DC as covered by Queen sound on that album on more than a bit of this album (see "Every Inch Of You").
HOWEVER, I will say that Dan Hawkins' time in Stone Gods has given him more confidence when song writing, as the band manage to nicely up the complexity with the songwriting while still keeping within the framework of their sound (a fine example of this is "Street Spirit (Fade Out)", although "She's Just A Girl, Eddie" could probably fit under this category as well). Although some of the lyrics are still rather poor, the lyrics seem to have generally taken a bit of a step up in quality on this album compared to The Darkness' first time around, which I'm personally going to attribute to Dan Hawkins due to better lyrics being a thing for Stone Gods and not for Hot Leg. Unfortunately, Dan Hawkins' extra confidence with songwriting has resulted in the band's songwriting taking a slight step down in terms of quality at the same time: there are a few songs that lack the hooks that you can find on Red Light Fever and occasionally has you getting faintly reminded of what happened on Silver Spoons & Broken Bones (only without the plagiarism and pointless sections that really dragged that album down for me). That said, it's not really enough a huge issue overall, since the really strong songs are going to be in your head all day anyway and the weaker songs don't really do anything really wrong per se. Also, the fact that some of the songs on the album are apparently old songs might mean this is me complaining about songs that weren't actually written for this album, so the more typical material might actually be some of the songs that the band didn't release for their debut album. I can't confirm which songs are the old ones, however, so I can't confirm how accurate this statement is.
The album's production is actually pretty fine. The bass is again still on the quiet side, but the mastering is fairly reasonable (although I do think it could have done with a tiny bit of turning down overall). Dan and Justin were co-producers on this album (they also produced it alongside Nick Brine, who co-produced Silver Spoons & Broken Bones alongside Dan), which is probably why this sounds like a combination of Silver Spoons & Broken Bones and Red Light Fever on a production level.
I know I'm skimming this review a bit compared to the other ones, but, really, most of what I've said can probably be seen in the last reviews I've done by The Darkness, Stone Gods and Hot Leg. You've got Justin Hawkins' high voice being its usual self (although he does sound a bit strained on this album at points...hopefully, this isn't a sign that his voice is going to give out in the next couple of years!), some solid bass playing by Frankie Poullain, you've got solid (if not especially complex) drumming from Ed Graham and Justin and Dan are a very good guitar duo together. The music's not especially complicated, but it's well performed. Really, there's not a lot left to say at this point.
So, final thoughts? It's a solid album that suffers from a few unmemorable songs and the regression of the band's sound doesn't exactly do them any favours, but everything else seems to have stepped up from One Way Ticket. Really, you probably know if you'll want to check this out or not just from what I've said about this album, especially if you have any familiarity with The Darkness at this point. I'd like to see the band be a bit more adventurous on their fourth album, but they've done a good enough job that I'm probably nitpicking at the end of the day.
Final Rating: 6 Out Of 10
While it suffers from having a few weak songs and the band's dedication to following their old sound does mean you can't help being a bit frustrated by the fact that the band don't seem to have progressed much musically, it's still a fairly solid album that's worth picking up if you've heard The Darkness' music before now and liked it. If you haven't and like the sound of it, you should give this a go. If you never liked The Darkness before now, don't bother with this, as you're not going to get anything to make you change your mind.
Personal Favourite Tracks: "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us", "She's Just A Girl, Eddie", "Street Spirit (Fade Out)"
Friday, 9 May 2014
Hot Leg "Red Light Fever" Review
Well, we've looked at how the band coped with the loss of Justin Hawkins, now it's time to see how Hawkins coped without The Darkness!
As I mentioned in the One Way Ticket review, Hawkins quit the band to cope with his drug addiction (although he also did it out of a dislike of the schedule the band was now having to live under, which seems a bit drastic considering it was only the band's second album at the time!). He had already had an attempt at the start of a solo career while he was still in The Darkness under the name British Whale and released two singles, a cover of "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Two Of Us" by Sparks and an unofficial World Cup anthem called "England" (this would be the 2006 World Cup, which is when I was 13...wow, I wonder if this is what it feels like to be old!), but that wasn't his only work before he founded Hot Leg: he sung backing vocals for Def Leppard's cover of "Hell Raiser" by Sweet (which appeared on Def Leppard's covers album Yeah!), he was part of an unsuccessful bid to represent the UK in the 2007 Eurovision song contest with the song "They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To" (which he sung as a duet with Beverlei Brown), he appeared on Top Gear to sing Billy Ocean's "Red Light Spells Danger" alongside the Top Gear presenters for a Comic Relief episode of the show and then started a Myspace profile containing songs for what was intended to be his solo album, but which would later become Hot Leg's album Red Light Fever. I'll admit, I'm skipping over a couple of things he did before the album was released, but most of it isn't really important, although you might be interested to hear that he did produce both this album and We're The Good Guys by the band Saving Aimee (even making a guest appearance on a song on that album) in 2009, so it's fair to say that the guy was busy up until The Darkness reunited!
Anyway, I've talked your ear off enough about Justin Hawkins' solo work, let's dig into this album! It charted at number 81 on the UK albums chart, so, from a popularity perspective, Stone Gods proved to be more popular than Justin Hawkins on his own did, and also gained worse reviews than Stone Gods did. But does that mean this is necessarily a worse album than Silver Spoons & Broken Bones? Well, let's find out!
Before we really start with the music, let's take a look at the cover art. And...oh, dear God, Hawkins wasn't serious with this cover art, was he? I...I have no words, I really don't! I just don't like this much and I can't quite find the words to say why!
Ugh...can we move on, I don't want to look at the cover art any longer than I have to!
We can? Thanks.
Red Light Fever bears a sound that is understandably very similar to what The Darkness were doing on their first two albums. It honestly sounds like a blend of their first two albums, with the somewhat grandiose sound of One Way Ticket being nicely balanced by the tough roots sound of Permission To Land. Don't get me wrong, there isn't any of the rather unusual instrument choices like there was on One Way Ticket and the AC/DC riffing isn't quite as noticeable on here as it was on Permission To Land: about the only real addition to the band's sound from that of The Darkness is the keyboards, and even they don't do a lot. In that aspect, it's a closer follow up to One Way Ticket than Silver Spoons & Broken Bones is: rather than rejecting the extravagance of One Way Ticket in favour of a return to hard rock roots like Stone Gods did, Hot Leg took that sound, dialled it back to a more manageable level and arguably gave it enough tidying up to make you realise just how far over the top The Darkness went on One Way Ticket. This isn't the sound of a band who are trying too much and losing sight of the sound they were going for like The Darkness did on One Way Ticket, this is the sound of a band who knew what they were aiming to do and just did it. The fact that most of the songs on the album are actually very enjoyable could well be used to highlight that point: about the only song I'd say doesn't really work is "Trojan Guitar", which wears itself out so quickly that you probably would be forgiven for wanting to reach for the skip button before it's finished.
The lyrics are generally pretty poor (although they don't descend to being quite as bad as on "Bald"), which kind of indicates to me that Justin Hawkins is the guy behind at least some of the lyrics from The Darkness' previous albums which I found to be in need of some work. That said, Hawkins is definitely on top form vocally and on the guitar here: some of the notes he hits in "Chickens" (which is, I'll be honest, one of the dumbest songs I've ever heard that was meant to be taken seriously, but I can't hate it either!) are ridiculously high and his guitar playing is just as good as it was on The Darkness' last album. The other members don't sound too different from the other guys in The Darkness on their respective instruments, which either is a sign of how good the other guys are on their instruments or how ultimately replaceable the guys in The Darkness would turn out to be if Hawkins had opted to (or been able to, if that was an option available to him) continue under the name of The Darkness. There's a guest appearance on "Ashamed" by Beverlei Brown (who should ring a bell: I mentioned her earlier), who vocally sounds like she is a female version of Justin Hawkins. Not sure whether that was a deliberate choice or not, but it'd be really interesting to hear her in a band of her own, as she doesn't seem to have done a lot, to my knowledge.
The production is still a bit on the loud side and the bass is still a bit too quiet for my liking, but it's better than One Way Ticket was. I would say that Stone Gods did a better job overall on the production front, but this isn't especially bad.
So, final thoughts? If you liked The Darkness' first album and thought their second album, while still enjoyable, was a bit overblown, this should be right up your alley! It dials back on a lot of the issues from One Way Ticket and finds a nice middle point between it and Permission To Land.
Final Rating: 7 Out Of 10
A very enjoyable album that is well composed, but suffers from generally poor lyrics, being slightly too loudly mastered and probably having a bit too much of Hawkins overdoing his higher range at points. Fans of The Darkness should go search this out and it's certainly worth a listen if you like the idea of Queen meets AC/DC. You might not love this album, but it'll still probably spend more than a bit of time in your CD player! If you didn't like The Darkness, well, you know the drill by now...
Personal Favourite Songs: "Chickens", "Ashamed"
As I mentioned in the One Way Ticket review, Hawkins quit the band to cope with his drug addiction (although he also did it out of a dislike of the schedule the band was now having to live under, which seems a bit drastic considering it was only the band's second album at the time!). He had already had an attempt at the start of a solo career while he was still in The Darkness under the name British Whale and released two singles, a cover of "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Two Of Us" by Sparks and an unofficial World Cup anthem called "England" (this would be the 2006 World Cup, which is when I was 13...wow, I wonder if this is what it feels like to be old!), but that wasn't his only work before he founded Hot Leg: he sung backing vocals for Def Leppard's cover of "Hell Raiser" by Sweet (which appeared on Def Leppard's covers album Yeah!), he was part of an unsuccessful bid to represent the UK in the 2007 Eurovision song contest with the song "They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To" (which he sung as a duet with Beverlei Brown), he appeared on Top Gear to sing Billy Ocean's "Red Light Spells Danger" alongside the Top Gear presenters for a Comic Relief episode of the show and then started a Myspace profile containing songs for what was intended to be his solo album, but which would later become Hot Leg's album Red Light Fever. I'll admit, I'm skipping over a couple of things he did before the album was released, but most of it isn't really important, although you might be interested to hear that he did produce both this album and We're The Good Guys by the band Saving Aimee (even making a guest appearance on a song on that album) in 2009, so it's fair to say that the guy was busy up until The Darkness reunited!
Anyway, I've talked your ear off enough about Justin Hawkins' solo work, let's dig into this album! It charted at number 81 on the UK albums chart, so, from a popularity perspective, Stone Gods proved to be more popular than Justin Hawkins on his own did, and also gained worse reviews than Stone Gods did. But does that mean this is necessarily a worse album than Silver Spoons & Broken Bones? Well, let's find out!
Before we really start with the music, let's take a look at the cover art. And...oh, dear God, Hawkins wasn't serious with this cover art, was he? I...I have no words, I really don't! I just don't like this much and I can't quite find the words to say why!
Ugh...can we move on, I don't want to look at the cover art any longer than I have to!
We can? Thanks.
Red Light Fever bears a sound that is understandably very similar to what The Darkness were doing on their first two albums. It honestly sounds like a blend of their first two albums, with the somewhat grandiose sound of One Way Ticket being nicely balanced by the tough roots sound of Permission To Land. Don't get me wrong, there isn't any of the rather unusual instrument choices like there was on One Way Ticket and the AC/DC riffing isn't quite as noticeable on here as it was on Permission To Land: about the only real addition to the band's sound from that of The Darkness is the keyboards, and even they don't do a lot. In that aspect, it's a closer follow up to One Way Ticket than Silver Spoons & Broken Bones is: rather than rejecting the extravagance of One Way Ticket in favour of a return to hard rock roots like Stone Gods did, Hot Leg took that sound, dialled it back to a more manageable level and arguably gave it enough tidying up to make you realise just how far over the top The Darkness went on One Way Ticket. This isn't the sound of a band who are trying too much and losing sight of the sound they were going for like The Darkness did on One Way Ticket, this is the sound of a band who knew what they were aiming to do and just did it. The fact that most of the songs on the album are actually very enjoyable could well be used to highlight that point: about the only song I'd say doesn't really work is "Trojan Guitar", which wears itself out so quickly that you probably would be forgiven for wanting to reach for the skip button before it's finished.
The lyrics are generally pretty poor (although they don't descend to being quite as bad as on "Bald"), which kind of indicates to me that Justin Hawkins is the guy behind at least some of the lyrics from The Darkness' previous albums which I found to be in need of some work. That said, Hawkins is definitely on top form vocally and on the guitar here: some of the notes he hits in "Chickens" (which is, I'll be honest, one of the dumbest songs I've ever heard that was meant to be taken seriously, but I can't hate it either!) are ridiculously high and his guitar playing is just as good as it was on The Darkness' last album. The other members don't sound too different from the other guys in The Darkness on their respective instruments, which either is a sign of how good the other guys are on their instruments or how ultimately replaceable the guys in The Darkness would turn out to be if Hawkins had opted to (or been able to, if that was an option available to him) continue under the name of The Darkness. There's a guest appearance on "Ashamed" by Beverlei Brown (who should ring a bell: I mentioned her earlier), who vocally sounds like she is a female version of Justin Hawkins. Not sure whether that was a deliberate choice or not, but it'd be really interesting to hear her in a band of her own, as she doesn't seem to have done a lot, to my knowledge.
The production is still a bit on the loud side and the bass is still a bit too quiet for my liking, but it's better than One Way Ticket was. I would say that Stone Gods did a better job overall on the production front, but this isn't especially bad.
So, final thoughts? If you liked The Darkness' first album and thought their second album, while still enjoyable, was a bit overblown, this should be right up your alley! It dials back on a lot of the issues from One Way Ticket and finds a nice middle point between it and Permission To Land.
Final Rating: 7 Out Of 10
A very enjoyable album that is well composed, but suffers from generally poor lyrics, being slightly too loudly mastered and probably having a bit too much of Hawkins overdoing his higher range at points. Fans of The Darkness should go search this out and it's certainly worth a listen if you like the idea of Queen meets AC/DC. You might not love this album, but it'll still probably spend more than a bit of time in your CD player! If you didn't like The Darkness, well, you know the drill by now...
Personal Favourite Songs: "Chickens", "Ashamed"
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